


Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Three: Creation

by GravelessUniverse



Series: Miracles of Ancient Wonder [3]
Category: Exalted (Roleplaying Game), RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Drama, F/F, Gen, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:00:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21534844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GravelessUniverse/pseuds/GravelessUniverse
Summary: The face of Remnant has changed. A group of Anathema, led by Ruby Rose, have taken and held a city despite the united efforts of Vale and Atlas. With a place to stay and rest, they must collect their team and deal with the true threat to the world. A RWBY/Exalted crossover.
Series: Miracles of Ancient Wonder [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/766908
Comments: 55
Kudos: 67





	1. Chapter 1.1

The clangor of hammers rang out in perfect rhythm.

The roar of bellows punctuated each measure.

The crackling of welders accented each beat and brought it all together.

Ruby stood at the highest platform the factory, surveying all of the work being done. Absentmindedly, she etched channels into the wires as they were deposited at the side of her special workbench. There were some things that a hundred hands could do faster than she could, drawing wires from the stock was one of them. But, no matter how much she tried to explain the right way to pull the lightning brush over them, Yang was the only one who could do it properly.

It was so easy, you just needed to wait for the acid drop to be in the right location then move with a constant speed. The copper bristles would draw the acid along and etch at the same time! Of course, it took everything lining up just right for the technique to work. Something that most people could rarely count on happening once, let alone every stroke.

The only way it made sense was as part of her power as Anathema. Before her fingers, the entire world was an instrument that produced impossible works. Even when she had to lead others, they moved to the proper beat through happenstance and a little bit of nudging.

Ruby reached for the threads surrounding her and plucked a pair that were vibrating too violently. _She counter-balanced the chaotic, raging power that could throw everything else off._ The furnaces lit by Yang’s green flames were more than worth it, but they always needed babying.

“Ruby!” A young man, Russ, ran up to her, bundle of wires in his arms. The end of one was perilously close to the trigger of his pistol, but Ruby could see that the safety was on. He pulled the top one out, perfectly straight with no metal bulges. “I did it!”

“Great job!” She cheered and tapped at the bin on the side of her table. “Put ‘em there.”

Last week, most of them would have been bent. But, Russ had spent more time than anyone else focusing on her lessons. He even took very detailed notes! Hopefully those notes would help out when he ‘vanished’ and turned back into Atlas’ Captain Lowe. A diligent and skilled engineer who just happened to already know of a few techniques that Ruby had to discover on her own? Already suspicious. But an outsider who “couldn’t help joining up when the Anathema took over”? That was too much. Spy was the only option, something she’d confirmed by looking into his future. Oh well. If Atlas wouldn’t accept her sending them plans directly, the spying still got them out there. Losing Russ’ help in around a month’s time would suck, but he wasn’t her only skilled technician. Not anymore.

Ruby picked up her radio and said, “Group three to my station to review lathe techniques in five minutes. Captain Ruby will show you what to do.”

She pulled a ball yellow energy from her belt and double checked how frayed her teaching identity was. With each lecture, it got weaker and weaker, but pretending there were ten or so girls named Ruby Rose was easier than trying to explain the truth over and over. Between that construct and the blessings she’d put on their city, anyone could learn everything she knew. Even old men and women, who had spent decades without developing their skills, could pick up a tool they’d never seen before and work magic with it.

“I… Umm…” Pearl, one of the detailers, hesitated as she approached Ruby’s station. She had a simple yellow robe on, a pair of hand-axes attached to her toolbelt. “Are you Ruby, the sister of Lady Yang?”

“Yep.” Ruby grinned, though her mouth was strained at the edges. That was the one problem with pretending to be so many people. Each Ruby looked slightly different and, more importantly, was remembered as a different person. So, even if any given individual was able to put two and two together once, that wouldn’t help them the second or third or fifth time. “What’s up?”

“I… I wanted to know if you knew when Lady Yang would be returning. It’s been some time since we felt her blessing and we...” Pearl’s eyes dropped to the ground as her cheeks turned bright red.

“I don’t know, sorry,” Ruby lied. When one of Yang’s... people… asked to work for her, of course she said yes. She needed all of the help she could get. But, it’d be nice if they kept that stuff away from her… and also their work… but mostly her. “Is there any problem with your station?”

“Oh no?” She shook her head. “Everything is fine. I just miss…”

“I get it.” She really didn’t. “But, I’m sure you’ll all… feel when she gets back.”

Pearl’s eyes lit up as she bowed and walked away.

Ruby sighed, checking on her current piece. Stupid awful dumb-

“Lady Ruby, if I may have a moment.” His voice was like a needle scratching a record. It brought her symphony to a screeching halt.

After taking a deep breath through her teeth, Ruby glanced to her side. A tall man wearing dark red robe had his head bowed. The rose symbol on his bandanna was staring at her instead of his eyes. The scythe that he insisted on building, even if it was actually more dangerous to him than his enemies, poked over his shoulder.

“What is it, Robin?” Ruby asked without turning from her wires. Of all of the people to remember her, no matter the disguise, it had to be him. If this was another invitation to their daily prayer, she was going to… Stand there and be uncomfortable because they were so close to finishing phase two and if she sucked it up, they’d get back to work faster.

Robin looked up, eyes sparkling like a school girl’s despite him being dad’s age. “My Lady, your presence has been requested at the seventh section. Your devoted are-”

“Are they putting up the spikes or performing a ceremony?”

“The prayer has concluded.” The pain in his voice was too obvious. “However, there’s been a disagreement about which strut to begin work on next.”

Ruby felt a headache coming on. They weren’t supposed to still be on struts.

“Let them know that... I’ll be there in five minutes,” Ruby said without meeting his eyes. Acknowledging it would just encourage him. Better to be… cold and bureaucratic about it. “That should be enough time to finish the next batch.”

“By your will.” He bowed as deeply as he could. Ruby couldn’t contain the grimace and shudder anymore, but at least he didn't see it. No, no, no: this was all so gross and… bleh.

She took her time with the last set of wires, powered off her bench, and picked up her radio. “I’m heading out for a bit. Group three, continue at your stations until I return. Everyone, reduce total output to sixty percent.”

Without her listening for an energy buildup, something catastrophic might happen. It was another skill that she hadn’t figured out how to teach Blake, let alone normal people. All of them were blind and deaf to the wonders of the world. There had to be a better way… maybe when they had Weiss around again she’d be able to figure it out with sorcery-stuff.

Ruby shrugged her current identity off and hopped down. There was a straight path from her forge to the northern wall. Ruby stepped onto the road _and ran_. The world blurred as she shot forward, her steps clearing blocks in second while a flurry of rose petals fell behind her. She darted between pedestrians, cars, and the remains of houses, _invisible to any who could not sense Aura._ Exploded buildings were easier, she just hopped over them. Thanks to losing all of the people against anathema rule, more than two thirds, no one really complained when she had Yang tear them down to make the energy flows better.

Within a minute, she’d reached the wall.

Once upon a time, it must have looked incredible: granite bricks held with rosewood facing. If she had her way, as much of it would be preserved as they could manage. But, they didn’t have enough time, so the entire wall was covered in scaffolding as they tore bricks free and dug into the packed earth beneath to bury the conduits, wires, and grounding. A crowd had formed around the base. They were shouting loud enough to drown out some of the other construction.

 _Ruby Rose, Anathema, ran into an alley just before Ruby Rose, journeyman mason, stepped out._ A young girl wearing dusty overalls, rather than mechanized armor, who no one needed to take notice of. Even if they weren’t likely to recognize her, if one of their ‘goddesses’ suddenly appeared, no one would give her the information she needed without wasting time on… dumb things.

“You measured incorrectly.”

“You didn’t dig deep enough.”

Cooper and Myst, the heads of her demolition and fabrication team for this section of the wall, were at the center. While they were in uniform, a grey jumpsuit with a leader armband. Ruby took a deep breath and told herself that they at least had their sword belts this time, even if the leather was now decorated with rose petals. The pair were pointing at a conduit that was bowing out of the trench it was supposed to be held in. _The strain on the metal was audible, to Ruby, over the shouting._ There were specific specifications that they should’ve followed to keep something like this from happening and-

She groaned as the realization hit her. They shouldn’t need her to resolve it, if the problem was as simple as she thought it was.

“Look at this!” Cooper held up a dirt smeared blueprint. Ruby had passed it off to him a couple of weeks ago. At least it was still readable. “This does not match what you brought and we’re already a day behind.”

“It says seven-hundred and twenty inches long. We brought you exactly that.” Myst poked her finger into the trough. “This, on the other hand, is too shallow. The arc is so tight, the walls would warp trying to fit. Low and behold, it’s currently bending because of your team’s laziness. If it weren’t for you, Lady Rose would be-”

“She would-”

Ruby tuned the argument out. It wasn’t going anywhere productive. As she pushed forward, the crowd started muttering and shouting, growing in volume as the pair did. It crept up to a low roar when she reached the front. They’d formed two mobs arguing about the best way to earn her favor. Yet, they didn’t notice the sound of straining metal, _its underlying pattern nearing the breaking point._

She paused for a moment. The vibration was visible to the naked eye.

Neither of them seemed to notice it.

Ruby bit her tongue to avoid saying something inappropriate. When she scanned everyone nearby, only two teenagers seemed like they saw anything. They were off on the side, eyes going wide as it began buckling. One of them tried to speak up, but he was drowned out by a call of, “Her radiance would never!”

With a deafening snap, the conduit tore free. Shards of copper and steel flew through the air, but she couldn’t care about those because the long end whipped toward the crowd.

With a pulse of her Aura, Ruby rocketed forward. Petals covered the crowd as she vaulted over them, landing next to Myst.

The end of the band smashed into her bracer. Wires splayed from the shattered frame, wrapping around her arm from wrist to shoulder The middle kept moving past her, knocking both of her “heads” over.

The sharp edges bit into her Aura with as much force of Blake’s swords. It drained her enough to force the sigil of Mars to appear on her forehead. A red light fell over the crowd, but her armor was untouched by the damage saved for cosmetic scratches.

“Welp, there goes that identity.” Ruby sighed as she took the disguise off.

The crowd fell to their knees, completely silent.

Ruby turned to Cooper and Myst, not offering a hand up. “Don’t _ever_ do something like this again. If there’s a problem, raise it up instead of… whatever this was.”

They stared at her, quivering.

“Every blueprint uses Valish measurements. All of them do. This”- she shook the wire -”is seven-hundred and twenty Vaccuan inches. I don’t know if someone read it wrong or used the wrong tools to measure, but...”

Cooper smiled slightly, raising his head.

“And you… don’t think you’re off the hook.”

He shrunk back down.

“Why would you ever put pieces which weren’t the right size in? If it’s wrong, send it back.”

She waited for a moment.

“Well?”

He glanced at her sheepishly, “It was most of the way in when we noticed the issue and it seemed like the more straightforward method of proving my point.”

“Urgh.” Ruby groaned, looked at the sky. “How many other- no wait, don’t answer that.”

 _She listened closely to the flows of energy through the wall. Three others were different then how she’d designed there._ “You need to dig up and replace number two, four, and seven.”

“That’ll set us back two more days.”

“And if you don’t, then the wall might explode in the middle of battle.” Ruby pointed a finger at the wire still looped around her wrist and _drew a line of violence from it._ The casing exploded as if it was struck by a medium-caliber round, freeing her.

After a long silence, a young man stepped out of the crowd: Cooper’s husband, Barley. “O’ Lady Ruby, The Girl in Red, Breaker of Beacon, Bane of Hunters, Forge-Mistress, the Absent One, if I may.”

Ruby took a deep breath, but waved her hand to continue.

“I beg your mercy for these mistakes.” He bowed very low, almost toppling over as his tool belt shifted. “We were merely attempting to hurry the construction and resolve the prior errors that caused us to break from your schedule. It was our hope that you would grace us with your presence upon completion of this section for celebration.”

“Okay so, first off, no one’s being punished.” Ruby said, “If you really want me to be happy, then don't make me come back and fix stuff that’s this obvious. This is childsplay. I’d understand if the errors was feeding the wire from the wrong end because Yang and I are the only ones who’d be able to tell which end is wrong, but… units... really?”

“W-we hear and shall obey,” Cooper said with a slight stutter. Whispers of acknowledgement and groveling crept from the crowd.

At any other time, Ruby was sure this would have been enough. She looked at the pair who noticed the danger. Both of them went pale. “You two.”

They glanced at each other and shivered.

“You’re promoted to safety inspectors.” Ruby _willed a new blessing into existence as she walked towards them. A cool purple light flashed around their bodies as the blessing attached itself._

With her business done, Ruby vanished into a cloud of rose petals.

~~~

As the sun came down, Ruby landed next to warehouse five. A wave of darkness had swept into the area several minutes ago and boy did she need to find her. Thankfully, it was easy when her target wasn’t trying to hide.

“How do you deal with it, Blake?” Ruby groaned, “They’ve added _another_ title since last week.”

“What is it?” Blake was sitting on a big crate labeled mortar munitions. Three others were next to it along with a machine gun box. The Atlas army could neither stop Blake from stealing these nor maintain their siege if they stopped ordering them. It was sort of perfect. As much as being under the constant threat of attack could be anyway.

“The Absent One.”

Blake chuckled, stopped when she turned to Ruby’s frown. “Sorry. They’re not exactly wrong. You never talk to them and I think half of the city still forgets who you are from time to time.”

“Try most of the city and the leaders, despite my wishes, don’t forget.” Ruby popped the gun box open. Two AM-19’s with all of the bells and whistles put them close to what she wanted. “We’ll need five more gun boxes like this and another ten of twelve millimeter ammunition. Regular’s fine, but armor-piercing would be better.”

“Noted.”

“Anyway.” Ruby closed the lid and double checked Blake for anything wrong. There was technically a risk of fighting every time she went out to steal from Atlas. Despite her teammate’s initial resistance, Ruby had reinforced the durability of Blake’s longcoat. It was heavier, but it could take small caliber rounds if... when... her Aura broke in a serious fight. “All of them know that Yang’s sister, Ruby Rose, is the one they worship, but almost none of them can remember what I look like. So, they keep doing stupid things to try and ‘win my favor’ while I’m standing there, watching them be stupid.”

Blake nodded. “You could actually take over, attend ceremonies, and give them direct orders.”

“I went to one and that’s one more than I should’ve. It started off as a normal religious service, even if it was a really uncomfortable one, but turned into a discussion of… Sightings of me and ideas about making me happy and-”

“I mean as their goddess, not as another face in the crowd.”

Ruby slumped to the ground, eyeing one of Blake’s pockets. It smelled suspicious. “That would be worse! Besides, it’s really ‘The Girl in Red’ who they care about. The terrifying warrior who almost destroyed Vale… not _me_.”

“I don’t think that’s true, but if you asked Yang to speak with-”

“I’m not going to do that. She already has enough on her plate dealing with her own… cult.” Ruby almost spat the word. After waiting a moment for Blake to respond, she poked the bulging pocket. “Are those what I think they are?”

Blake rolled her eyes and pulled out a plain white package. In an instant, it was in Ruby’s hands and in another the contents were in her mouth. The chocolate was a little crumbly and not very sweet, the dough was way too moist and sticky, but they were still cookies! Atlas military ‘ready to eat’ cookies that were supposed to last for twenty years, but cookies nevertheless.

After the number of times they’d stolen all of the chocolate, Atlas stopped ordering it, so there was a terrible cookie drought with no good remedy.

“You could also write down a few rules. That’s what I did.” Blake continued the prior topic.

Ruby shook her head, mouth too full of to say anything.

“All right then.” Blake’s cat ears flicked down and back.

After an enormous gulp, Ruby coughed. “It’ll be fine. We finish the wall and I won’t need to care about it anymore.”

“Sure you won’t.” Blake pursed her lips and shook her head. “Do you know when Yang’ll be back?”

Ruby leaned her head back and _opened her ears to the sounds the the stars. Even with the sun doing its best to drown them out, she could still clearly hear their signals._ “Nope.”

“That’s a shame.” Blake sighed, _her voice echoing in Ruby’s thoughts. “He’s watching us again?”_

 _”Yeah. Yang will actually get into an argument with a girlfriend tomorrow and I kinda doubt you’re gonna be the one.” Ruby thought back._ With the real message delivered, she turned her head to look right at a crow. It was sitting on a power-line, staring right at them. “You can just come down and talk to us. We’ve been here the entire time and still miss you.”

He blinked twice and took flight, _the incredible power of his Aura shifting ambient energy around itself_. Ruby knew her uncle had always been one of the strongest Hunters. From what she could hear, he seemed to be second only to the Anathema, dwarfing every Atlas specialist by about the same amount that they did him.

“I’m sorry.” Blake patted Ruby’s shoulder.

“It would be easier if they just forgot about me. Then...” She held a hand over her heart and shook her head. It was just a feeling that she needed to get used to.


	2. Chapter 1.2

The little shop smelled of burning incense and fresh meat.

Ren walked down the isles, searching for the best ingredients he could find. They needed filling food that would last and not taste bad. Emerald and Penny were willing to eat just about anything, but everyone else had opinions.

A pack of sausages caught his eye. They'd be able to camp outside of Chisana Machi for a few more days, a week at most. That would be enough time to finish off a nice, hearty stew. Though, the vegetables he'd normally use weren't available this close to Vaccuo.

He picked up a bundle of leafy stalks. They smelled a little spicy. That would need balancing, but they felt crisp enough to work for tomorrow's lunch. The bell on the front door rang as he picked through a bin of roots and tubers.

"Can you believe it? One of them just showed up out of nowhere," A woman said as she came in.

"They should know their kind aren't welcome here. Not after what those animals did to Forest. " A second voice, a bit higher, followed her. "That poor boy."

Ren sighed. They wouldn't be convinced about anything by a 'wandering Huntsman'.

"He still has scars covering his face, just like the ones on their horrid flag."

"I bet she's just walking around with those colors."

"You'd think so, but no."

"She isn't?!"

"I was walking down main street when she sauntered in like she owned the place." The woman started 'whispering'. She was so loud that everyone could easily hear. "She had this long coat and wings so big they almost knocked poor Mister Ashen's plants off his fence. Went straight to the bar."

"Drinking at this hour? Disgusting." The woman paused for a moment. "But she really wasn't wearing their sign?"

"No, I think she's one of the clever ones who's waiting for us to drop our guard."

Ren checked the date, three days before Yang's expected arrival. She was supposed to send them a message when she got here, but it could also be a coincidence.

'We might have found Yang.' He texted Jaune, before grabbing a pair of parsnips. Keeping Jaune up to date was important for a number of reasons, confirmation of Ren's own mental stability being one of the most important.

'That's good?' Jaune's reply came almost immediately. 'I mean… That was why you guys left, right?'

'It's probably good.' At the very least, it would mean they weren't camping in the most hidden areas they could find.

'How do you feel about her taking over that city?' Jaune asked the most important question. Something that would tell their leader if he had been completely taken in by Weiss. Nora was already compromised to some extent, so she needed more watching.

'I'm still angry and awaiting an explanation that makes any sense.' Ren replied. 'How's the siege?'

'You still sound like you and if more Hunters come back from chasing you, we'll be a lot better. We tried flushing her out four days ago.' Jaune's icon stayed on typing for a long time. 'Three Hunters and two students died.'

'I'm sorry.' Ren thought back to how hard it was to land a blow on Cinder during Professor Goodwitch's classes. That was before she became an Anathema.

'I have no idea how someone missing an arm can fight that well.'

'You fought her?' Ren's hand shook. Jaune had improved a lot, but...

'Not exactly. She showed up in the middle of us trying to defuse one of her traps and Professor Port took point.'

'You faced one and lived. That's more than most can say.'

'Haven't we faced four or five at this point?' He sent another message before Ren could respond. 'Crap, sorry. I mean… You and Nora were..'

'It's fine.' A pair of kids who'd been brainwashed... facing one down... being the sole survivors. 'Yours is still a major accomplishment.'

'Sure.'

Ren went over to the potato basket. If it was Yang, then he'd need to grab enough for two more people, maybe three.

'I g2g. Time to get some use out of my "strong Aura".' Jaune sent one more text.

'Good luck.' Ren responded. With that finished, he went back to the basket and-

An explosion shook the building. Onions fell to the ground as glass shattered.

Ren tossed his basket to the side, vaulting over the stands to get to the front faster. He blew past the women, not bothering to apologize when they nearly fell. He didn't have the time and they were incredibly rude.

A cloud of dust rose into the air several streets away. By the time he arrived, a crowd had formed.

"Murderer!"

"He's fine, his Aura hasn't even broken." A woman shouted over everyone else as she leapt through a hole in a brick wall. Her black wings spread wide as she flew above the man who must have been her target. Blood-red hair spilled from a crown of horns, six in total. Someone else might have mistaken her for just a very strange Faunus. From what Ren remembered, some of them had multiple animal traits. However, only the Anathema could have traits from more than one type of animal at once and he'd never heard of a six-horned bird.

His hands hovered over his weapons, fingers twitching from the urge to draw them and shoot. She wore a heavily armored long coat that faded from brown to black and glistened with expensive materials; it technically could be owned by anyone with a ludicrous amount of money.

However, the golden bracelets on her wrists were all too familiar. The sight of one closing in on his face ended most sparring matches during his first semester at Beacon. Before they knew the truth about team RWBY and just thought of them as incredibly talented girls.

"Goddamn freaks! I'm not gonna let you kill anyone else!" The man scrambled to his feet. He was stocky and strong, but the gun in his hand would be the bigger threat to most people. It was large enough to break the Aura of a normal person. Three long scars crossed his face, just like the slashes on the White Fang's flag, and fresh blood was on both his knuckles and his shirt. "This won't be like last time. There may be three of you, but this time we're ready."

"Freak? Really? That's the best you've got?"

"If your daddy screwed a bird to make you, then that's what you are."

Yang chuckled, covering her mouth with a fist. "Sorry, sorry, it's just… My mother's name is actually Raven, but you have no idea how big of a mistake"- She backhanded his first shot to the ground. -"you've made."

"Ahh." The man stepped back, gun wavering.

He glanced around, locking eyes with Ren. "Hey, you ! You're some kinda Hunter, aren't you?"

"I am." Ren said without any inflection.

"Then why aren't you helping me?"

Yang glanced over, breaking out into a grin when she saw him. "Oh hey, Ren. Good to see you again."

The color drained from the man's face.

"You shouldn't have done this." Ren said, glancing from the man to Yang. They were all among the most wanted people in the world, kill on sight for the Anathema.

"Phfft," Yang rolled her eyes and pointed over her shoulder. "Take a look behind me and you'll understand."

Ren stepped around her, not letting the man leave his sight. As he moved, the crowd parted. While many were partially covered in dust, three also had blood on their clothing.

The bar was less destroyed than he expected. Only one single table had been flipped over. All but two of the people inside were crowding around the windows. Those two were a young man and a little girl huddled in a back corner, both obvious Faunus due to their ears. The man's face was slowly turning into a nasty bruise and blood spattered what had been a nice, white shirt. A long gash had been opened above one eyebrow.

"Who did this?" Ren kept watch on the Faunus. As soon as he asked, several of the humans in the bar turned their glares toward him.

"He was keeping all of us safe from those monsters." One of the men inside shouted, several buttons had been popped off of his shirt and a splotch of blood marred the left hand side.

"They're a menace." A woman stepped up next to him, her own blouse in a similar state.

"Neither of them are people you should be worried about." Ren stepped through the hole in the wall. The little girl stood up as he walked toward them.

She spread her arms wide, standing between him and the man, her entire body trembling.

"Please, I'm here to help." Ren pulled a kit from his belt pouch as another shot rang from outside.

"You really don't learn, do you?" Yang shouted.

A fleshy impact, the sound of wood splitting, and another shot.

Ren held up a wipe. "I need to disinfect your wound. It will sting a little."

"Mimi," The man groaned.

"Daddy?" She turned around.

"Mimi, let him come over. He's… he doesn't look like a bad person." His cheek had swelled so much every word was slurred.

"Thank you, Mimi." Ren whispered, kneeling down. The man flinched as he began to work. "I'm Ren. What's your name?"

"Angelo."

"What happened?"

"We're going to see grandma," Mimi whispered.

"And you stopped here?"

She nodded. "I was hungry."

"So- someone didn't like how I spoke to the waitress," Angelo said slowly. "The others..."

"It isn't fair." Ren picked up a patch of gauze and tape.

"It is what it is." Angelo pointed at the door. "I… I begged her to just let it go when she saw me. Now… it's all going to get worse."

Ren nodded. There wasn't much more he could do for the bleeding. "Let's go to your car now then."

"Thank you."

The fight continued as Ren worked. From the different voices shouting, several more must have joined in, but the result was a foregone conclusion. Yang was stronger than the Anathema who destroyed his home and it took most of her own empowered soldier's lives to kill that monster. Unless this village was secretly a retirement community for Hunters, there was nothing they could do to stop her…

* * *

"Hit her again."

Pyrrha fired another lightning bolt at Nora. It read as thirty two percent weaker than the prior, according to Penny's sensors. A pink barrier formed in front of Nora's palm. Sparks scattered across its surface where the lightning hit.

Penny clapped quietly, it would be rude to distract Nora when she might succeed!

"Good. Now, push more power into it," Weiss said. She was seated opposite Penny, watching the light show and catching everything important despite glancing down to her scroll a lot.

The hairs on Pyrra's arm raised as the current increased back to the strength where- Oh, it happened again. One bolt slipped through Nora's fingers. Then another, and another and Pyrrha cut off the power before she blasted Nora off of her seat… again.

"Ahhh. Why is this so much harder than just using my Aura!" Nora shouted, fingers twitching. Pink sparks ran all over her body, but Penny knew what Nora's Semblance was now and that there was nothing to be concerned about. "Be right back!"

Before anyone could respond, Nora dashed away, running a circle around the camp, then another, and another. At some point she picked up a fallen tree and began performing squats with it raised above her head.

"Weiss," Penny continued to follow Nora's movements. "I apologize, but I am curious about something."

"Yes, Penny?" Weiss glanced at her, continuing to type.

"I do not believe that enough happens every time that Pyrrha shocks Nora to require such detailed notes."

"You're correct. I'm not just taking notes; I'm also looking over the results of some very interesting research." Weiss continued typing. "A question for everyone. Have you ever seen a ghost?"

Penny paused. She ran a shallow search of her memory banks. "I have not. But I have seen images of them."

"I believe that there are," Pyrrha said slowly.

"Not whether you have seen pictures or believe in them. If you, with your own eyes, have seen one."

"I-" Pyrrha paused for a moment. She began crossing her arms, but stopped before one would touch the many injuries on her abdomen. "I do not believe that I have."

"Exactly. While many people have reported such things, there hasn't been definitive proof of it. At least, until a recent archaeological expedition that the Atlas Army performed." Weiss turned her scroll to the group. It showed an image of a man stepping through a brick wall. He was mostly translucent and was wearing very strange clothing. "They have active recordings of a specter defending what they now suspect is a tomb."

Penny performed a deeper search, this one for anything she wasn't supposed to know about. No data found. "I was not aware of anything like that."

"Nor should you. The entire operation is as black as Grimm."

"Alright, so ghosts exist. Woo." Emerald said from the side of the fire. When she spoke, Pyrrha tensed and sparks jumped between her fingers. " Why would Atlas hide this?"

"Research into Anathema technology, along with acquiring the aid of one, necessitates secrecy." Weiss continued typing without looking at them. Her reason made sense to Penny. Everything related to that was classified. From how the others were staring at her, they must not have a good understanding of security procedures.

"Wait what? They're doing what?" Nora ran back to the fire with a log over her shoulder.

"Look at the state of the Atlas army. Nearly two thirds is robotic. While not quite at human level intelligence they can patrol, fight, and even perform basic public relations. Though, they are legitimately terrible at the last of those. The other kingdoms barely have automated turrets, let alone full scale models. These are systems that are programmed with responses, not intelligences that happen to be limited."

More accurately, Atlas robotics were even more advanced, but that was a secret that Penny was not supposed to tell anyone about. Though, her father's explanations of how her heart and mind were created were weird and complicated, one part was actually him dreaming up a circuit and another team member some sort of formula, so she probably couldn't tell them too much, even if she was allowed to.

"This is all on top of the communications, material science, and avionics advances. We're decades ahead of everyone else at least. This isn't an advantage that can simply come from funneling more money into basic research. It comes from deconstructing and testing technology that the other kingdoms ignore for fear of it being tainted. Or even, putting up with those who built it until they can explain."

Both Nora and Pyrrha frowned and looked slightly away from Weiss. It was not an uncommon reaction, but one that Penny still wasn't sure exactly what it meant. Weiss hadn't said anything incorrect and there was no bodily shift that could indicate anger...

"You lost me." Emerald pulled her own scroll out and began playing a game that was best online. However, there was no signal to a communications tower.

"I too am confused, but for different reasons." Penny pinged the region and received no response, as expected. "I hadn't thought about it before, but how are you receiving that data?"

Weiss took a deep breath. "How much about computers and networking do all of you know?"

"A great deal." Penny responded.

"Basically nothing." The others followed.

"Wonderful, this will make an equal amount of sense to all of you." Weiss continued typing. "Before we left Beacon, I used my access in Atlas' systems to build several warp gates. The dragon guarding their main database was not amused because I had come in through the wall, but he was easy to convince."

There was only silence.

Weiss glanced up. "I'm assuming the dragon was really an AI and the wall represented an air gap because nothing was supposed to be networked."

Nothing changed.

"I placed the central warp point in my own scroll, so I can still access it and write anything I need to."

"What?" Pyrrha blinked several times.

"I went into Atlas' servers via a metaphysical avatar and drilled through several of their walls to access places that I wasn't supposed to be in right then. The dragon guardians were hard to persuade, but I could plausibly claim need-to-know. My avatar had an official badge of position and everything."

Emerald squinted at her. "I can't tell if you're screwing with us or not."

"It's all true."

"That means you can access them now?"

"Yes." Weiss smirked and turned her scroll around. The front page of today's Atlas Herald was loading. "I made a direct connection from each to my own scroll. I did the same thing to Vale's communication's tower, which is why I have all normal functions."

"Weiss," Penny took a moment to consider how much to say. "I have interacted with a large number of Atlas networks and that does not sound like any Atlas AI nor does that explain how you can connect to a server without any reception or connection."

"I warned you it wouldn't make sense. You need to be able to shift part of yourself into a datastream in order to see how connections still exist, but magical understanding bridges them."

"That isn't how anything works and I would-" An engine roared in the distance, cutting off what Penny realized would have been giving away too much about what she really was.

The sound was still far away, but was moving right towards their clearing. After a few seconds, more engines appeared. One, five… at least ten other vehicles were following closely behind the first.

They all knew that Ren could be recognized every time he went into town. Some Hunter team must have finally caught them.

Penny stood up and opened her back panel, allowing ten blades to splay out behind her. Emerald ran to the back of their line because her weapons were still on Weiss' belt. Her job was to just use her Semblance. Pyrrha readied her shield and rifle, taking the back. With her injuries, she needed to stay back.

"Nora," Weiss tossed a vial of Ice Dust to her.

"Are you sure?" Nora hesitated for a moment, before pulling the stopper free and pouring a small amount into her hand.

"We need massed fire against this many. Just don't hit us and you'll be fine." Weiss drew her own sword and stepped to the front of the group.

Penny joined Weiss because she was combat ready, unlike almost everyone else. She increased the output of her secondary generator, linking it to her blades. Sparks of green ran along the edges as the capacitors charged. She moved her blades a wide circle, rotating them in front of her as she prepared.

In the distance, a flash of light appeared shortly before the sound of wood exploding. Penny locked onto her first target, a monstrosity of blackened steel and burnished brass that spewed green flames from its exhaust pipes. A motorcycle that looked like something from those late-night shows that Penny wasn't supposed to know about. The rider's face couldn't be seen over the windshield, but their hair was dark red.

"I have a visual." Penny said as the charge reached one hundred percent.

"Where?" Nora raised her hand. Pink icicles were floating around it, but there was also a line of ice slowly growing up her arm. "This is tricky."

"You're doing great, Nora." Weiss had her own version of the spell floating by her side. "The only problem was the Ice Dust you left on the back of your hand. Penny, fire to disable the lead vehicle."

"Roger." Penny locked onto the wheel and released the firing lock. An orb of green light appeared between her swords, growing from a pinpoint to the size of a fist within a second. She stopped feeding it energy at sixty percent of safe power. "Target locked. Firing!"

A green laser erupted from the energy orb, blazing through the tree cover. Leaves and branches exploded, heated too quickly to light on fire. The rider rose up, running on only their front wheel, and caught her beam in one hand! The energy dissipated as soon as it touched their fingers.

Penny cut the power early, killing a Hunter was not acceptable! "Attack ineffective. They absorbed it."

"Everyone, hold your fire!" Weiss growled.

"What?" Nora turned, the icicles following her.

"That isn't an enemy; or at least the first one isn't." Weiss pulled her scroll out again, scowling.

"What are you doing?" Pyrrha asked, eyes still on the forest.

"Making sure I don't have to be even angrier when-" She was interrupted by the motorcycle blasting through the woods and skidding to a stop.

A Faunus woman with dark red hair flipped her sunglasses up and smiled. Considering the sharp teeth and aura of small, black particulate orbiting her, it didn't help much.

She looked right at Weiss. "Hey there gorgeous, need a lift?"

Weiss turned her scowl to the woman. "Why like this?"

"Well, some people were telling me to not and I needed this. It's been two weeks on my own!" The woman shrugged. There was something about how she spoke that made Penny think something else was going on. "And also there were a bunch of people who really needed a punch to the face."

"Ren, how true is that?" Weiss said as Ren leaned back from behind the new woman.

He pursed his lips. "While she isn't wrong about there being people in need of a lesson, I find this excessive."

"Excessive is the entire point." The woman said, "Besides, now it'll be more exciting when we escape from… three?"

"Four," Ren stated. "The same group we outran last week."

"Four Hunters and thirty or so guys with guns."

"Only thirty-four people and we shot you because you didn't tell us you were coming!" Weiss got louder and louder with each word.

"Oh yeah, thanks for that." The woman laughed. "I needed a recharge and, honestly, I don't think any of you would be able to really hurt me anymore."

"I might just put that to the test." Weiss growled. Her eyes flashed with a silver light and all of the teeth extended to form sharp points.

"I can't wait. Though you're a lot more daring than I thought you'd be. Wouldn't exactly be appropriate for all of our friends to watch."

"I-" Weiss' cheeks brightened. "Fine, you asked for it, but that doesn't resolve our current problem."

"It's not really a problem; we'll just leave."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Weiss snapped. "If you hadn't noticed, we aren't exactly mobile and our camp is still set-up."

"You'll all ride with me." The woman grinned, patting the side of her motorcycle.

"No offense, Miss Stranger," Penny said, "But I do not think that all of us could fit and even if we could, I may be too heavy for it myself."

"If I'm not too heavy you won't be…" She squinted at Penny for a moment. "I don't actually know which of you is Penny and which is Emerald, but you're all welcome aboard Bumblebee once I get a little bit more..."

She stomped on the ground and three trees behind her exploded in a burst of green fire. The wood and ash swirled towards her, compressing down into more dark orbs. Then, it flowed down to her bike. A moment later, more iron and brass extruded from each side, forming two sidecars.

The dark aura surrounding her was almost imperceptible by the time she finished.

"And, voila." The woman raised her arms wide. "A chariot fit for two Queens. Sorry Ren, but you'll have to scooch."

He had already taken a seat in the right hand one.

"Don't worry about the tents, I'll build a cabin for us to sleep in the same way."

Once more Penny could not help staring at the impossible feat just performed. It answered many questions, but she needed to be sure. "You are Yang Xiao-Long, are you not?"

"In the flesh." Yang grinned and twisted a lock of hair. "Oh, right, demon mode."

While Nora and Pyrrha went over to Ren, Yang melted. Her hair and horns turned into a black sludge that hardened and flaked off, revealing the blond hair and lilac eyes which dotted every wanted poster Penny had seen.

"You kept the wings?" Emerald asked as she took her own seat.

"Flying. Is. Awesome." Yang smiled and patted the seat behind her.

"Fine." Weiss walked up and paused for a moment. She grabbed the collar of Yang's coat and pulled her down into a kiss before taking a seat behind Yang. "But I'm still mad and as soon as we aren't time constrained we're going to have a talk about communication."

"I can't believe you, Miss Plans, is this calm." Emerald said quietly as Penny took a seat next to her.

"There are extenuating circumstances regarding Yang's behavior that we don't have time to go over right now."

Penny nodded again. She'd read some of the Anathema logs. They were incredibly detailed. The bike shifted as she settled in.

"Holy shit, you weren't kidding." Yang looked at her with wide eyes.

"Why would I be kidding about that?" Penny tilted her head to one side.

"I just… Nevermind." Yang shook her head and revved the engine. "Buckle up because the path we have to take is gonna be a little wild."

They blasted off far more quickly than a motorcycle should be able to go, especially one holding so much weight. The path was… decidedly not wild. It was primarily a straight line that contained an unnecessary amount of jumps and three instances of Yang either flipping them over backwards or sideways.

"I do not understand why this is necessary." Penny looked at Emerald wobbling back and forth, a green ting on her cheeks. "It's a straight line."

"It isn't though." Yang mumbled something under her breath.

"If we continue on this path, we will go over a cliff in thirty seconds." Penny looked ahead, confirming the estimate.

"Look, just trust me on this, you'll see soon." Yang continued accelerating, making no attempt to avoid driving straight off of said cliff.

Penny wasn't concerned about a fall, all of them should be able to survive it, but this would not make them-

As soon as they were airborne Penny suddenly felt a very strong wireless signal which should also be impossible. It would mean that they just moved several thousand kilometers away. She double and triple checked as they plummeted towards the pure white ground. As they landed, a cloud of snow erupted from the impact.

"What the hell?" Emerald shouted as she brushed clump of snow off of her shoulder. "Where are we?"

"Ummm…." Yang made noises and pointed to the North West. "We need to go that way next to get home."

Penny coughed. "The city of Mantel is two point seven kilometers in that direction."

"We're in Atlas?!" Everyone else shouted.


	3. Chapter 1.3

A Beowolf's howl echoed from the mountains. An ear splitting roar that shook the bones of all who could hear it, even from miles away.

As it passed, for a moment, the night was so silent that Ruby could hear her own heartbeat.

One, two three. The scream of artillery shells falling began. Dust explosions blossomed in the distance, making the mountains look like the night sky.

But, those stars told no tales.

She looked up, confirming what she already knew one last time. The sky was clear, the moon in the middle of shattering over the descending sign of the Lightning Bolt. It's path would cross over the descending Wheel, ending on the ascending sign of the Lovers. A bad omen if she'd ever heard of one. Close to the worst considering the circumstances.

It would be a story of failing light, of the darkest horrors of the night run rampant and innocents slain. The Grimm would clash against all that was good and find themselves victorious. Only through violence could they be pushed back, violence which harmed those who wielded it as much as their foes.

Many lives would be lost, only for the survivors to relieve their grief with each other's bodies.

"Do you think they'll break through the Atlesians?" A man to her right asked, his rifle pointed at the open field.

The only thing she had to be thankful for, was that the descending Sword was nowhere to be seen. While Atlas may be her enemy, they shouldn't, or maybe couldn't, strike her by following the wave of Grimm because the sign of broken hope was not present.

"They will." She looked over her line. Almost three hundred men and women stood ready to defend their home. More were stationed elsewhere on the walls, but _her position would be where the Grimm would focus._ That was why she had brought their best here, those who'd either had their Auras Awakened long ago or volunteered for the risk. With such a terrible future, they needed everything they could get.

Astrology was a strange thing. No one believed in it because important predictions were never accurate. 'Will we win the battle?' was the most useless. There was some negative thing, a blanket of bad energy that covered all of Remnant, making every prediction err on the side of cynicism, but reading the stars still failed even when taking it into consideration.

Why? She'd asked herself that question a lot over the past few months and came to a single answer.

Aura.

Aura was the light of the soul, the power to make miracles manifest. It allowed Hunters to defy their Fates and fight off certain doom.

As Anathema, she had a lot of Aura to spread around and an awful Fate to avert.

Rose petals flew from her hand. Each fell on the forehead of one of her soldiers, _binding them together with a crimson thread of battle._ They immediately straightened up, standing at attention. A warrior's howl began forming in their lines.

Ruby shouted with them as she _sent another pulse of energy along her threads._ They would be blessed for this battle, their bodies quicker and resolve stronger. If there was any day they would not falter, it would be today.

Ruby Rose, Commander and Anathema, opened her priority channel to the entire city. "Attention everyone, this is Ruby. Tonight, we face more Grimm than I've ever seen in one place. We'll be outnumbered one hundred to one, if not worse. Against odds like that, even senior Hunters fear for their lives."

The murmurings died down, replaced by the soft clink of weapons being checked.

"This fear will be a relative you can't escape from. Because this is the first night where we'll stare darkness in the eye until it blinks." She raised Crescent Rose to her shoulder, peering down the scope. "The first night where all of our hard work is put to use and these beasts butcher themselves on our defenses. The first night where we prove that no matter what they throw at us, we will not be broken!"

She fired a round at one of the spires they'd built a hundred feet from the walls. As it passed, a bolt of lightning erupted from the tip, destroying the bullet.

"These towers are the fruits of your labor. You pushed yourselves night and day for weeks to build them up. With that same focus, that same strength, we _will_ see another sunrise." Ruby fired again. A fireball blossomed, a point of light in the darkness.

At the edge of her vision, black bodies and white claws charged out of the gloom.

"Tonight, each and every one of you is a hero. Trust in your brothers and sisters." Ruby drew a bead on an Ursa's head. "All teams, open fire."

She fired again, _forcing her round to bounce between packs of Grimm_ and causing more stars to appear in the wave of darkness. Moments later, the opening salvo began. Explosions tore through the ocean of Grimm, any smaller monsters pulverized by the pressure waves from artillery shells. Those who survived, met a wave of metallic death from the machine gunners. Her unit's timing was perfect, lead scything through them like Crescent Rose through wood.

"I never expected those to work this well," Blake said as a crescent of purple flew from her blade. It split an Ursa Major, the smallest Grimm capable of weathering the storm, in two.

"This is why Atlas uses them all of the time. They're not cheap, but we have enough ammo thanks to your runs." Ruby raised her eyes to the skies. Six spotlights lit up a flock of aerial Grimm. While her men could put down the Sphinxes and Griffons, they wouldn't be able to hit Nevermore at night except by luck. With each pull of the trigger, _Ruby killed ten._

"How many are there?"

"No clue."

"Just like when we met, huh?"

"Kinda… What I wouldn't give for a squad of Hunters right now, even students would work." That was their biggest problem. Either of them could scythe through the Grimm on the ground, but not when they were worried about dodging that many bullets. There was a hundred yard zone that stretched from the base of the wall where no one was supposed to shoot, just in case she had to jump down.

"Where would they be?"

"Covering the other arcs." Ruby spared a glance to the right. The Grimm were advancing further as soon as her team's attention wasn't on them. A pack was attacking one of her lightning towers. Three Fire Dust rounds pushed them back. But, they'd still managed to warp it, breaking the circuit.

_With a wave of her hand, Ruby grabbed onto the frayed pattern and returned it to its proper shape._

"I still don't understand how you do that." Blake said before vanishing and reappearing in the middle of a group of Creeps that tunneled their way to the wall. A whirlwind of black and purple energy destroyed them in an instant.

"It was broken and wrong, so I made it right," Ruby mumbled under her breath.

* * *

For nearly half an hour, the pattern continued. Most of the Grimm would be killed by the regular fighters and lightning towers. If any got past the barrier of lead, then Blake would jump down. Meanwhile, Ruby kept the skies clear. However, even after that much time, they still hadn't seen the Ancient in charge.

"Where do you think it is?" Blake asked as she landed next to Ruby.

"Could be anywhere..."

"Lady Ruby, spotter's report," Maple, one of the youngest who was allowed to have her Aura Awakened, said over the radio.

"Go for it."

"We have strange flashes of light at two hundred and thirty degrees. Unknown origin."

"Thanks." She glanced to the southwest.

Flashes of light turned out to be an understatement. It was like someone had conjured a storm in the trees. Bolts of lightning arced from deeper in, the light reflecting off of flying crystals of… pink and silver…

"Oh," Ruby brought Crescent Rose's scope to her eye as she continued. "No, no, no, no."

"What's wrong?" Blake asked.

Ruby's eyes were glued to the glyphs floating in the air, firing what had to be ice shards. "Yang got back early."

"She… Oh no…"

Their friends and teammates were stuck outside... fighting an ocean of Grimm...on the other side of the wall of death.

Yang would be able to fly over it or just go though, but none of the others would be able to manage. If they opened a gap, then the Grimm would have a free path forward until everyone made it in. For that matter, they might not even be able to contact anyone.

"Ruby?" Blake tapped her shoulder.

"I'm thinking..." She raised a hand to her visor, hesitating before changing the channel. She needed to be able to respond to anything that was announced and had never figured out how to make it intelligently splice channels together. With a groan, she passed her scroll to a soldier. "Walton, call the following contacts until one of them picks up: Sis, Weiss, Pyrrha, Penny, Ren, Nora."

As it rang, she cleared the sky of aerial Grimm. Between each shot, she glanced at the name being dialed.

Yang didn't pick up.

Orange flames blossomed from the space her friends were fighting, lighting up the forest. Ruby called out an order to change targeting priority.

Weiss didn't pick up.

Green flames joined them as an Ursa exploded, taking a tree with it.

Pyrrha didn't pick up.

A bolt of lightning fell from the sky. Then another. And another.

"Hello? Ruby?" Penny's voice called out over the sound of combat. "As much as I would enjoy speaking with you, this is a really bad time. We wandered into a big group of Grimm."

Ruby grabbed her scroll back, trapping it between her shoulder and her ear. "I know. I can see you."

"What? We made it?!"

"Yeah. I have a plan to get all of you to us." Ruby sighted in another group and blew them away. "Can you put Weiss or Yang on?"

"Not really…"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't use a scroll."

Ruby nodded to herself, that was probably the only reason Penny picked up in the first place, "Right… Umm, okay… We'll make this work."

* * *

A Beowolf swiped from the right.

Emerald slipped under its paw, her blade sinking in behind its jaw. The red in its eyes winked out after she'd pulled back, but she was moving too quickly to notice where it fell.

Another came in, claws streaking toward her. One blade batted them up while the next cut its throat out. A third followed, two kicks to the neck and a blade through the chest ended it. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she pulled her weapon free. It was good to have them again, even if they'd be back on Weiss' belt soon and Grimm weren't any fun. They didn't react.

Grimm rather than a calm night at camp, urgh. If only Cinder was with them, she'd be able to take control of the Grimm and end all of this fighting instantly.

Emerald hopped back, narrowly avoiding another attack. Before she could strike back, silver shards of ice took it out… along with everything else in front of her.

She glanced over her shoulder. Weiss and Nora were in the center of their formation, both surrounded by glyphs. An elegant princess and a brute, Weiss' spells were the main thing holding back the tide of Grimm with Nora helping. It shouldn't have just been them, but-

An explosion rocked the ground to her right. A wave of green flames so harsh Emerald could feel them from several feet away followed.

Another wave was torn to shreds by Yang. The self proclaimed demon queen lifted her heel and tapped it down, like an impatient child. Another blast followed a second later, then another, and another; like clockwork. She just stood there with her arms crossed and obliterated more Grimm than the rest of the melee line combined, all while barely moving a muscle.

If she'd bothered trying, maybe they wouldn't be in this mess. How could Weiss call Cinder arrogant when _that_ was her girlfriend?

To Emerald's other side, Pyrrha launched bolts of lightning that chained from enemy to enemy, the sword in her land useless because she _still_ hadn't recovered. The temptation to say something, just a little comment to twist in the wound of the Maiden who'd almost zapped Emerald twice today, was high. It'd also be stupid. Staying away would be better, but Pyrrha refused to allow Emerald at her back, so here they were.

Penny and Ren were covering the opposite arc of their circle. Since they hadn't been overrun, Emerald assumed those two were killing a lot of Grimm. Not worth taking her eyes off of her own to check on.

If only she could've convinced Weiss and Cinder to help each other. The two would have been unstoppable… Maybe… Maybe that could change, once they all were safe and calm again…

Emerald raised her blades over the protests of her forearms as more Grimm closed. She let her Aura flow into the muscles, soothing the pain. The end wasn't in sight; she'd need to ration it.

"Outta Dust!" Nora shouted. "Pyrrha, hit me!"

Lightning struck Nora as she ran to the front line in a pink blur. She landed between Emerald and Pyrrha. Whew, one problem solved.

"I have enough for six more spells, then I have to draw on my own power, and they aren't letting up. We need to find a way out before either Yang or I light up," Weiss said between casts.

"Don't worry about me. I can keep this up all night." Yang said between taps. "Just like you when-"

"Great! Pyrrha," Weiss, thankfully, cut in, "can you keep the bullets from that city off of us if we have to run for it?"

"Possibly." Pyrrha began, "If you and Yang can keep the Grimm-"

"Wait!" Penny shouted from her side. "Ruby just called me and she has a plan to get us to the city!"

"Yang, you need to figure out how to time this more reliably! Penny, what's Ruby's plan?" Weiss said before anyone else could get a word in.

"She says that their shells aren't armed until the last thirty meters of the arc, so flying in at higher than forty meters should definitely be safe. She'll shoot down any Nevermore getting close."

"Because I can just tell how high that is." Yang grumbled, her wings splaying slightly as she shouted. "Is there some sort of marker to fly above?"

"Twice as high as the tallest tree would be safe," Penny added.

"Sounds good, but I can only carry two of you."

"Aren't you supposed to be, inhumanly strong, or something?" Emerald asked, rolling her eyes ever so slightly.

"I only have two hands and hanging off of my belt isn't exactly safe. Though, if you want to try the fun way, I'll send you over right now." Yang smiled at emerald. The same sort of smile Cinder had whenever she was about to hurt someone.

The veins in Yang's neck pulsed with a green light. _Blood began dripping from the tips of her fingers, droplets leaving a trail behind her as she shot towards an Ursa._

 _The air screamed with a strong enough wind to force Emerald to take a step back. It crackled with sparks and the sound of something tearing as her punch connected with the Grimm._ For a moment, the cloud of dust and ash surrounding Yang paused, frozen in the air.

The Ursa shot away, cutting a line through the sea of bodies.

It arched over the killing field like a missile with two Beowolves impaled on its spines.

When it hit the wall of the city, it must have exploded. Emerald could make out the flash of green light… from over a mile away…

Emerald sucked in air through her teeth. "I'll stick with the plan."

"Yang! Ruby says not to do that again! She doesn't have enough Aura to fix your damage too!" Penny shouted. "Also, two people at once should be alright."

"I should be able to bring one with me as well," Pyrrha said.

"Thank you, Pyrrha! She says that helps." Penny paused for a moment. "According to Ruby, the main issue is the question of who can best stay behind for the second trip and also protect Yang's bike. I would nominate myself fo-."

"I'll do it." Ren cut in. "My Semblance will make the Grimm ignore me and anything I touch until someone can return."

Penny winced. "Ren, Ruby's very annoyed that you never told her about that before."

"It wasn't relevant. Also, I can protect one other person while I do so."

The wince got stronger. "O-Okay, here's what she says to do."

Emerald dropped a pair of Creeps, paying close attention to the most recent insanity.

"Weiss will use half of her Dust to clear as much of a path between here and the city, with Yang's help. Both of you go all out. Then, Ren and I stay here." Penny pointed to him. "Nora, Emerald, and Yang are team Sparky Gems. Weiss and Pyrrha are team North Pole.

"North Pole will advance to the wall and join the artillery groups. Sparky will land on the ground and take out the Grimm who'll get through when the city stops shooting. Yang will then come back for me and Ren. Ruby needs to watch the sky and Blake's busy protecting the walls, so we won't get much support until everyone's in."

"Sounds like a better plan than we had before." Yang held a fist up. Green flames flowed down from her fingers as her skin melted, literally melted. Her face looked like it had been covered in oil before the fire burned it away.

Emerald grimaced, looking away as Yang began growing taller and taller. She topped out with her waist at eye level for Emerald, her entire body wreathed with fire bright enough that it was hard to look at her.

"Let's go," Yang held a gigantic hand out from Emerald. Somehow, the fire didn't burn when she stepped closer.


	4. Chapter 1.4

"Woo!" Nora screamed as they broke through the tree tops and soared through the night sky.

They were zooming! Faster than even a lighting-and-caffeine boosted grenade-jump. The roar of the air rushing past drowned out the Grimm below. Being pressed against Yang's belly wasn't exactly how she wanted to fly, but beggars can't be choosers. Nora was on the right, one giant hand keeping her pressed close.

They leveled out far above the treetops, a bright green fireball in the night sky that pushed back against the red light coming from the city walls.

"I told you flying was great!" Yang shouted over the wind.

"Can you go faster?" Nora shouted back. Two months ago, she would've freaked, but that was in the past, all of her fears forgotten, like magic… Because it was kind of literally magic that did it.

"Not really, if you want speed, ask Ruby for a piggy-back sometime. She-" Yang rolled to the side, barely avoiding a bright red light, only reacting once it passed. "What the...?"

Nora coughed, gagging on the smoke tail.

With a powerful beat of Yang's wings, they spun around.

A rainbow of colored lights were chasing them, a barrage of missiles taller than giant Yang!

Yang dove hard enough to force Nora's stomach into her throat.

The Dust missiles turned to follow her, including the first one that had missed.

"God dammit." Yang shifted, wrapping her fingers around Nora's arm. "I hope you two have enough Aura for this because neither of you will survive getting hit by that."

"Hol-" Emerald gasped before she was flung toward the wall.

Yang hefted Nora above her head like a javelin. The city they were supposed to be going to still twinkled in the distance. Without any other warning, Nora was thrown. She shouted as the blood rushed from her head.

The world blurred around her. It was so fast, like being fired out of a cannon and... Wait a minute. She knew that she should be doing thinking about something, but-

The ground tasted like burnt pancakes and blood.

Nora hacked up a ball of blackened dirt. When she tried to open her eyes, a red light blinded her.

"Nora?" Someone familiar asked, shaking her shoulders. "Oh no…"

In a flash, the pain and fuzziness vanished. Nora blinked twice, her vision cleared between them.

A girl with red eyes was standing over her… her eyes sparkled like the night sky and… The memories finally came back when she noticed the cloak and silver rose pins. Nora leapt to her feet with a smile. "Ruby."

Ruby sighed. "At least that counted as damage Yang caused."

"What?"

"I can heal things if Blake or Yang… or the Grimm... cause them." Ruby stood back up, staring off into the distance. "How much Aura do you have left?"

Nora checked her scroll. "In the red."

"Got it." Ruby stared at her, brow furrowing. "Blake's taking over Nevermore duty. You two need to keep the walls safe from anything that gets past that line until Yang gets here."

She pointed at a line of blackened dirt that had a long skid dragging some to Nora's feet. Further away, a green fire was blazing in the sky. Missile after missile shot at Yang from one of the mountains. As soon as one got too close, it exploded.

"Is she going to be alright?" Nora knew Yang was tough, but those were big explosions.

"Either me or Blake would be out of range by now. Yang's tough, but-"

A trio of missiles exploded, green light flared even brighter in response.

"-even she can't just ignore those. They'll wear her down eventually." Ruby growled, "I should've kept Yang coming back early in mind, this messes up everything."

"So, she's screwed then? " Emerald asked as a series of Weiss' glyphs appeared in the air near Yang. Nora couldn't pick out where Weiss and Pyrrha were flying in from.

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

"Umm..." Nora made a noise. There were so many bad ways that could be done that she knew Ruby had done before. "What?"

"I'm going to stop them." Ruby fired at the Grimm breaking through. Far too many fell down for the number of shots.

What used to be a part of Nora would have been screaming at her to immediately hammer Ruby. One girl making an army to stop… that didn't work unless you had creepy Anathema mind control or were going to do a lot of killing. But, that part of her was gone now, even if Nora still remembered it well enough to guess what it might say. It wasn't entirely wrong, and they even had Weiss' word on that too. Calling out team RWBY on doing creepy stuff was something that both her and Ren were supposed to do. She didn't have him to double check her new ideas of what was or wasn't worth hammering with, but this felt like something she would've so… Nora took a deep breath and asked, "How? I mean, there's no way to do that unless you do some really bad things."

"I'll ask them nicely and break their weapons if they refuse." Ruby sounded exhausted. She continued firing way past the point where she should've reloaded. "Do either of you need anything else before I go?"

An idea came to Nora. "Do you have any more Dust? I could shoot spells at the Grimm."

Ruby tossed Nora an extra magazine from her belt. "That one's a mix of Ice and Lightning dust."

"Perfect." Nora pulled out one of the bullets.

"Everyone, this is Ruby Rose, we have additional ground support in zone one." Ruby collapsed her weapon. " I'm going offline until further notice. Blake's in charge while I'm away."

Nora looked back at the wall, "So where should I…"

A line of red light was streaking across the battlefield like a missile, which obviously couldn't answer her.

Nora squeezed a bullet until it cracked. Ice Dust flowed through her fingers, mixing with the cloud of pink energy that covered them. With a grunt, she hefted Magnhild over one shoulder. With her other hand, she began tracing the first glyph in the air. A circle of dull pink fog was the beginning.

A trio of Ursa Major battered their way through the gunfire, sparks flying from their masks where they were shot.

"Emerald, you have any Aura left?" Nora asked, tracing the secondary squares that she needed to keep the Dust under control. "They'll get here before I finish this."

"Barely any…" Emerald drew her blades and stepped a few feet in front of Nora. "You trust me to do this?"

"Yeah." Nora lied. She didn't really trust someone who kept arguing that Cinder Fall was right, but no one would want to get eaten by a Grimm and Nora could at least trust that. Thoughts of the Ursa faded as she focused on the most complicated part of the spell. There was only her, the Dust, and the words required. The final steps began by her own symbol in the center of the circle. If she was really good, she'd have been able to draw a line with each finger. Weiss always did that. But, what Nora needed was to be sure of the spell, so she took it slow and just used her pointer finger by itself.

First the shaft…

One of the Ursa turned around, running back toward the wave of Grimm. As soon as it was trampled, another swerved and tripped several.

Next, the head…

Emerald shot the second. Fire Dust exploded in its eyes. It tripped over another Grimm.

Last, the lightning bolt… Her own symbol of power. Just like Weiss' glyphs.

As the final line finished, her circle flashed into existence. The dull pink became a roaring surge of light.

Nora spoke three words in that weird language Weiss told her to use and grabbed Magnhild with both hands. She threw all of her weight into a swing, striking the center of the glyph hard enough to make her bones rattle.

Fist sized shards of pink ice flew from the glyph. So many shot at the Grimm that they blocked Nora's vision, but she didn't need to see when she could feel. The light of her soul screamed at the darkness surrounding them, shredding the beasts one by one.

A Boarbutusk had slipped off to the side. Now it was charging right for her.

Nora dropped to one knee, catching the strike with the handle of Magnhild.

The Grimm forced her back, twisting her hammer in her grasp and ramming its tusks into her side.

Nora grit her teeth as pain erupted and she flew through the air again.

She pulled a second bullet out, crushing it and detonating the mixture.

Lightning crackled over her skin, her Semblance supercharging every muscle in her body.

She didn't need her Aura if one hit could end them.

* * *

Ruby dashed through the forest, leaving the rest of her team behind with new orders. Her radio was silent now, her men without their commander. She would need all of her focus for what came next.

Bullets whizzed overhead as quickly as trees passed. They were too high up to be aimed at her, and too low to be going towards her team, unlike the missiles. Those soared overhead, a continuous barrage of rockets that, if she remembered the standard Atlas specs, were designed to fight Behemoths.

Fortunately, each shot left a trail of burning Dust for her to follow to their source at the mountain's peak.

She slowed down as she came to a cliff face and opened her ears to all that was around her.

"-told you to put that down!" An older man's voice sounded from above.

"We need to kill her now," A women replied over the sound of metal sliding on metal. "It's the best chance we'll ever have."

"Specialist Benton, that is not how a proper war is fought."

"Spare me your 'proper war', Lieutenant Colonel. If the General hasn't rescinded his prior orders, then I still have command here. Ready for the next barrage."

That was all Ruby needed to know to ask her question and determine her path forward. It wasn't a betrayal of all of Atlas, merely part of it. A part that would not listen to reason, only force.

With a deep breath, Ruby called upon the music of warfare. For many nights she had dreamt of a promise of power and a near forgotten poem. She had heard it only once before, played by a master so far above her that any efforts would look like a child playing with her mommy's tools in comparison.

"Once, there was a maiden…" She plucked the strings of Fate, one by one. Each note added to the prior, reverberating through the battlefield around her. Red, Burgundy, Crimson, Vermillion, Scarlet: each told her more about her foes than any words could convey. Some things did not require a master.

The Atlas Army was an organization of impeccable order. Each and every soldier, human and machine alike, would be a limb of their commander. Structure, organization, cohesion: Ruby had destroyed each of those on the night when she first heard this melody. A single thread pulled, a single enemy acting as they shouldn't, and it all came crumbling down.

War was order.

Ruby let out her breath and looked to the sky. The stars above burned with all the colors of Mars. A single leap brought her above the mountain, staring down at the battalion that she must stop. Their base stretched over the peak, with a line of vehicles and men on the side facing her city. Three more missiles launched as Ruby leveled Crescent Rose at the front truck.

The thunderclap of a great explosion heralded her arrival. Men, women, and even robots dove for cover as the trio of missiles burst in front of them.

The ground was stained red by Ruby's blazing Aura as she landed on the lead truck.

"I'll gonna give you one chance to stop attacking us," She said, Crescent Rose held low.

"Anat-" One of the riflemen started shouting and raising his gun.

Ruby sighed. Before he could finish crying, she fired once. The round traced its path through the wires connecting each launcher to its vehicle.

"-hema…" The man's voice cracked as his call petered out.

"All men!" Picking out the Specialist was simple; she was one of five neither wearing a standard issue uniform nor covering from Ruby's first attack. Instead, she wore a fancy white dress with several knives slipped in a thigh holster. "This is our chance. Take her out!"

Ruby kicked off of the inoperable missile launcher and threw herself into the crowd, firing again as she sailed through the air. Her round bounced from soldier to soldier, destroying the targeting systems of their weapons.

With the enemy inside of their own formation, the soldiers hesitated. Men and women screamed as they readied rifles, the ammunition they'd been carrying to the trucks left on the ground, the robots could not risk human life by firing wildly. Lines of potential shifted around the battlefield. None of them touched her.

Bullets flew through the air uselessly as Ruby hopped onto a soldier's head and skipped to her neighbor's. A knife wiped past her ear.

Ruby took a step along the path of maximum violence. She spun as she landed, charging her Aura into her right gauntlet as the motors of her armor whirred. More Aura enhanced her mechanical muscles as she swung around, catching one of the Specialists in the back of the head as she twirled.

His head snapped down from the force of the blow, taking the rest of his body with it. A line of dirt was drawn away from her, plowed by his forehead.

A move that was equal parts Uncle Qrow and Yang. Qrow mixed a bunch of punches and kicks between weapon strikes, which was something that Ruby didn't get until she'd become Anathema. Her sister had given her understanding how to use the Gravity Dust infused gauntlets to full effect, turning a punch so weak that anyone's aura would ignore it into something dangerous.

Her darling scythe would have been too much for them. Crescent Rose was built to take out large Grimm in a single blow, no matter if she shot them or hit them. Between her new armor making each blow that much harder and the army's normal Auras, she couldn't risk it.

With said darling held loosely, Ruby met the lead Specialist's eyes. "Are you sure we can't talk about this?"

She received a pair of knives in reply. Ruby batted them away as she ducked a different Specialist's fireball.

The remaining three formed up behind their leader: a dark skinned man who held a crystal topped quarterstaff, the source of the fireball; a small woman with a buckler and short sword combo, both were simply styled; and a boy who looked a bit older than the rest of Ruby's team, who had hit tri-section spear in a white knuckled grip.

The 'smart' thing would have been to take her with a surprise strike, drop the leader to demoralize her unit. There was also an argument for taking out the weakest link. Doing anything else wouldn't make sense.

Ruby took a page from Uncle Qrow's book and took a bow. It felt so dumb.

For a moment, the fight paused. The battalion wavered in the face of Ruby leaving herself seemingly defenseless.

A machine gunner ended it.

The bullets only shredded rose petals because Ruby was already sliding into another group who hadn't put their rocket launchers down.

One shot took out all of their targeting systems. Another disarmed a squad that had drawn their rifles.

By the time the boy with the spear had reached them, Ruby had lept onto the central building and batted a missile into the sky.

Her next salvo took out the third and seventh gun in each squad, along with a Gryphon that had been bearing down from above.

War was chaos.

* * *

Deathly energy coated her sword as it slid through the Grimm. The Nevermore's wing fell free from the rest of its body.

Deathly energy drained from the wound to her soul. Her Aura was restored to what it had been before she attacked.

Deathly energy flowed into her muscles. They turned colder, harder as she fed them more power.

Blake kicked off of the falling corpse, landing on the back of another Nevermore. She swung her blades up as she ran up its back, slicing through both wings like they weren't there. Once more, her Aura fed on the destruction.

With a slow breath, she sheathed her blade. One, two: power built within her weapon as she counted. Blake watched the lights of their city slowly approach as she fell. The Grimm approached from all around her.

Three.

She drew her blade and flickered from Grimm to Grimm. Its edge cut clean through anything in its path, whether flesh, bone, and air. A ghastly wave of purple force swept out from each arc, tearing through anything her blades pointed towards. Blake became an indiscriminate sphere of death.

She couldn't count the number of Grimm that fell alongside her when she stopped swinging.

Blake could feel blood running down her forehead. Wisps of black and purple danced across her fingers and up her arm. While she could have spent more Aura to hold the manifestations back, it would've been a bad idea. This wasn't her type of fight, it wasn't a battle where her style could do what it was best at. This was Ruby and Yang's domain, but with enough power, she could still keep the Grimm away.

With the flick of a hand, she impaled a far away Grimm and pulled on the ribbon connecting her to her blade. Blake swung through the air, slicing through any that came within arms reach and recovering Aura.

"Lady Blake?" Maple's voice came from her earpiece.

"Yes?" Blake landed on her makeshift mount, severing the head with a clean blow.

"A pack of Beringel's made it through in zone… umm.. Six."

Blake looked to the eastern side of the city, the part ruby had left with the fewest defenders. The group of ape Grimm was almost half-way to the wall. "I'm on my way."

With a burst of Aura, Blake launched herself toward them. Flying Grimm were both platforms and Aura batteries while she moved.

"Lady Blake?" Rudolph, one of her own worshipers, was next.

"Yes?" Blake took a deep breath.

"We have Creeps tunneling past the line in zone three."

Blake spared a glance to the West.

The green and silver stars floating above the battle were finally moving back towards the city, while the mountain was bathed in red. No more attacks were coming from Atlas.

Blake poured more of her Aura into her leaps.

Reinforcements were coming; she could be a little vulnerable if it meant getting to the Grimm before they reached people who couldn't handle them.

* * *

"You're just wasting your weapons and ammo!" Ruby shouted as she took out another truck. With no targeting systems, they'd be limited to close range. Enough for the Grimm, not a threat to Yang.

"Don't fear men. All of us are still standing, she can't fight forever." Specialist Benton chased after her with more knives flying. Green lines traced their paths as they homed in on Ruby's location. A single bullet destroyed each.

Ruby froze for a moment. "Do… Do you think I'm trying to kill any of you?"

"Every time you close, the squad just pushes you back."

"That isn't, at all, what-"

Danger approached from one side.

The first rounds two she dodged by leaning back.

The third never would have connected in the first place.

Four and five were caught by the shaft of Crescent Rose, mid transformation.

The sixth was sliced through.

The seventh struck true.

Ruby could have stepped outside of the world, ensuring her safety, but this wasn't a serious enough threat and she had a point to prove.

A blast of fire engulfed Ruby, the only visible effect was a small dent and missing paint where it hit. A single breath confirmed that Ruby had bruised ribs, but that wasn't too bad. The healing system she'd designed was already starting to work on them. It was nowhere near as good as the armor she'd worked on at Beacon, but it would get the job done.

"Assuming you knew they were aiming, that was a good trick." Ruby glanced at the Specialists. Three were still standing, including their leader. Each had paused halfway through their follow up strike, eyes wide and skin paling.

Crescent Rose's blade flared with red and purple energy. Ruby took one step toward them and exploded into petals. One version of her appeared behind each and drew the very tip of her scythe along each Specialist. Cloth and skin split without resistance, deep enough to hurt and bleed, but nothing a Hunter should need to worry about.

Ruby collapsed Crescent Rose, standing in the same place where she'd started.

"Demon! Monster!" The junior Specialists shouted.

"Shelly, Roy that's enough." Benton kept a knife in her uninjured hand. "You've revealed your weakness, Girl in Red, you don't have the will to do what needs to be done."

"All I want- all we want, is to be able to live in peace and work with you to take down our real enemies!"

"Work with Anathema?" She spit on the ground. "All of you are too dangerous to live."

"A few months ago, I would've agreed with you." Ruby pointed a finger at her. The Specialist hadn't gone off about demons or anything. She must have been one of the people who knew the truth. "We are very dangerous in the sense that I can do… Well, this… without any risk."

She drew a line of violence from her fingertip to every other weapon in the Specialist's reach. With a mental pull of the trigger, all of them shattered.

"But, I was wrong. I was wrong about all of it." Ruby looked over her shoulder. Two men were turning fresh heavy machine guns toward her. Another shot from Crescent Rose destroyed the barrels of both. They should have more spares, so breaking them was still safeish. She needed to leave them with enough weapons to fight back. "Look around you! I wouldn't be here if you didn't attack my sister! And, need I remind you, you did this in the middle of a Grimm swarm!"

Pure venom glared back at her.

"How many of your men are going to die because I had to break so many weapons? How many of your kingdom's people have already lost their lives because a quarter of the Atlas army is laying siege to a peaceful city?" Ruby's fingers almost hurt from how hard she was squeezing Crescent Rose. "All I've been doing over the past few months is making it easier for people to fight the Grimm! The armor that I'm wearing, by itself, could make a squad of normal people into junior Hunters. And I know it's something that normal people can make because I have them hard at work on building some for themselves!"

She honestly expected something besides the faces of every soldier growing paler. This was something out of most people's nightmares, but did none of them have any passion for engineering?

"Really? It's armor; it protects you from things! I even stripped out the heads up display and targeting assistance from the mass production version so you wouldn't need to ever worry about being influenced! Also, it consumed too much of an average person's Aura to run those.."

"The fruit of a tainted tree will only sew death. Anyone who accepted your offer would be a fool. You could leave hidden messages in any of your instructions and tear Atlas apart from the inside." Benton coughed, eyes darting to a rifle just out of arm's reach.

"Yeah, I'm not going to get anywhere here." Ruby sucked in a breath through clenched teeth as she bounced the rifle away with a phantom bullet. This was ridiculous. She couldn't do that… Blake could, but Blake only used that power to stop people from being racist or help them remember Ruby. Ruby turned to the man with the fanciest uniform, who was cowering behind a broken truck. "I'm guessing you're the officer in charge, right?"

The man stood up straight, sweat dripping down his face. "Y-yes. I mean, no, Specialist Benton is-"

"Call General Ironwood up and let me talk to him."

"I-I." He stepped back. "I cannot do that. It would put everyone at risk."

Ruby sighed. Danger was building from her left. With a smooth motion, she brought Crescent Rose to her shoulder and zoomed in on the neighboring mountain. A series of scopes glinted in the red light. She loaded a Gravity Dust round and shot all seven with a single bullet.

"You know what?" She scanned the rest of that slope, putting a normal round into every other sniper rifle aimed in her direction. "I'm done trying to be reasonable. I could've just broken in from the start, but I wanted to give you a chance to be nice."

The Specialist's eyes went wide, her Aura suddenly flaring. The sound it made was harsh in a way Ruby'd never heard before. Like fingernails on a blackboard, but with the world's worst trumpet playing in the background. She fired Crescent Rose at the woman, taking lock of hair with the round, and the sound cut off. "Whatever that was, don't do it again."

Ruby called up nearby radio channels in her headset and flipped through every frequency they'd stolen information about.

"-owolves at our five-"

"-uesting resupply to One Hundr-"

"-tch shot me!"

"-neral, we need to do something about the Anathema before it kills us all. Over," An older woman shouted.

Ruby paused her search.

"Beta One, this is Command. I will not authorize an artillery barrage on our own men! Over!" General Ironwood shouted loud enough to make the speaker ring.

"Command, this Gamma Fifteen. Our attack on Theta Two has failed and it returned fire. It's range of engagement is at least twice what we suspected. Over." A young man said.

"Gamma Fifteen, this is Command. Do you have eyes on the Sixth Air-Defense Battalion? Over."

"Command, this is Gamma Fifteen. We have eyes on Theta Two and the Sixth. Many soldiers are standing, but combat has ceased despite several weapons being trained on it. I have to question whether they're our men or potential enemy combatants. Over."

Ruby flicked her mic on. "Hi everyone. This is Theta Two. I'm trying to be nice, but you're making it really hard. Also, I haven't done anything to you men besides break their weapons."

The line was silent.

"I mean. The only reason I'm here is because your guys shot my sister while she was trying to save people from the Grimm. And it sounds like that was all because one of your Specialists is really over zealous. But, that's not how anything's supposed to be done. You don't fight people while Grimm are attacking!" Ruby waited for a moment, but there was only silence. "Seriously? You too… I'm not controlling you or anything like that!"

Silence.

"Wait… Is this the radio etiquette thing? Argh! Fine! Over!"


	5. Chapter 1.5

A sea of jet black beasts covered the land, interspersed with flashes of light. Fiery bursts erupted, scattering bodies and limbs. Her squad was engaged once more. With a wave of her hand, a glyph appeared in the sky underneath her Gryphon. Her thoughts turned to a fight from two years ago as she pushed more of her Aura outward.

_It had been her first deployment in a command position, a simple culling operation. The Grimm had been growing on the peak of a remote mountain and the pleas of the town at its base had been ignored for far too long. Her men took the paths up on foot, with two ships providing air support. She first saw the beast when it came barrelling down the side of a cliff. She'd been too slow to stop it from shattering their formation._

A pure white Dire Boarbatusk emerged from the glyph. A single thought gave an order.

The massive boar curled into a ball and began spinning, just as it had that day. As soon as it touched the ground, a line of carnage appeared within the Grimm. It pushed deeper into the forest, where they suspected the main target would be lurking. A swarm this size was _always_ controlled by an Ancient Beast of some sort. It was only a matter of finding it.

"All units, this is Ice Queen. Going offline, Heartseeker has comms and command until I return. Fire a violet flare if you need my attention. Copy?" Winter said as she conjured another glyph. It was time for her regular check in with Command to go over intelligence. As the only Specialist in the battlefield with easy flight, Winter's job was to keep an eye on from above and provide fire support where it was needed, in addition to leading her normal unit.

"Roger that, Ice Queen. Heartseeker, over." Her sergeant replied, gunfire in the background.

"Good copy. Ice Queen out," She switched channels to Command.

"-erstand why you reacted this way. Any attack like that was not authorized and will be investigated," General Ironwood said. "The middle of a Grimm swarm is not the time for another front to go hot."

Winter froze. The man in charge of the entire theater should never speak like that on an official channel.

"Thank you, General." A young girl responded. Her voice sounded familiar, like a student who- Winter remembered who she was, someone who Winter never expected to hear over these channels. She'd only heard this girl in person once, but everyone knew of the videos: 'The Attack on Beacon' and 'Conquest of Aincrad'. "Since I'm already here, where's the Ancient? I'll finish it off before anyone else has to get hurt and then leave you to do whatever else you want to besides attacking us. Over."

That explained very little and also a great deal. Someone had jumped the gun and failed to end the threat, putting any additional operations in jeopardy.

"Command, this is Beta One. Bad copy, please confirm that it just suggested _cooperating with demons._ I for one-" Colonel Onyx was so terse that it almost made Winter wince.

"I'm gonna do it no matter what you say," Ruby cut her off. "If you help me, then your men will know where I am and we can go back to glaring at each other over bombed out fields that much soone- What did I tell you about using your Semblance!"

A meaty thud rang over the channel.

"Sorry, one of your Specialists is gonna need medical attention because she wouldn't stop trying to use her creepy Semblance on me! And she definitely has at least one concussion because of it." Ruby continued shouting. "Actually, you should probably look into her Aura with that weird Aura manipulation thing you built."

Winter groaned as the Anathema casually gave information about top secret projects over a secure, but not need-to-know channel.

"It's really messed up. So, anyway, the Ancient. Send me the location and it'll be dead."

Silence reigned.

"Oh right, over."

General Ironwood audibly sighed over the radio. If it were Weiss asking for aid, Winter was sure he would provide it with a token amount of resistance. Blake Belladonna would likely be accepted too. However…

"Beta One, while I understand your concern, the team currently tracking the Ancient has already been exposed to Theta Two. Whitewing Actual, do you copy? Over."

"Command, this is Whitewing Actual, good copy. Over." Winter said, still scanning the forest.

"Whitewing Actual, in response to the nature of Theta Two's threat to expose other personnel to herself and her history of following through with similar threats, execute Contingency Theta Foxtrot Seven. Over."

"Acknowledged." Winter knew exactly what this plan entailed due to Weiss' status. It was far in the back of the Anathema Combat Manual, a section for plans that no one ever thought they would need to use, but creating them was part of officer training. "My team has passed decontamination procedures before and know what to expect. Over."

"This is about helping, not shooting, right?" Ruby cut in.

General Ironwood continued without acknowledging her. "Whitewing Actual, do you have any information on Zeta One's location? Over."

Winter glanced back at the battle field. "Negative, sir. We have a rough area, but have not sighted Zeta One. Over."

"I can probably find it if you tell me where to go." Ruby Rose cut in. "My address is zero zero one zero eff ahe six queue three eight four bee."

Winter barely resisted seething. Back in basic, she had to run fifty laps around the Academy because one of her squad mates interrupted a _normal_ radio channel. "Command, please advise regarding how much access we should provide. Over."

"Whitewing Actual, just… transmit your coordinates to and rendezvous with Theta Two. As she was not provided with access to this channel, assume all other channels have been compromised by her as well. The sooner Zeta One is destroyed, the sooner we return to normal operations. Over."

The front of Winter's forehead pulsed as she transmitted her coordinates. Her heart beat all the way from her chest to the top of her head at the thought of what was coming next. "Acknowledged, sir. Rendezvous location has been set. Whitewing Actual, over and out."

"Ahh, why are these here now! What did you-" Ruby Rose's shouts were cut off when Winter killed the connection.

Winter spared the battlefield a glance as she flew down to an unoccupied hilltop. The Grimm had swarmed her Boarbatusk, dragging it down as they tore into its hide. Winter cut the flow of Aura to the beast and focused on another memory.

_An alarm blared. Her eyes shot open mid roll. She landed at the side of her bed on one knee, left hand grasping for her saber._

_"Red Alert: Creep tremors detec-"_

_The speaker was destroyed when a Creep the size of a small bus burst through the wall._

The beast roared, its skin shimmering in the red light of the night. Winter pointed at the nearest cluster of Beowolves. It dove underground, uprooting small trees as it tunneled right for them.

"That's pretty cool, but we need to get going." A girl's voice came from her left. Her equipment was obviously customized, which made her title obvious.

Winter turned to her. "Specialist, who's squad are you-"

Something felt off. The girl's equipment was not merely customized, it glistened with more expensive material than a normal Specialist would be able to purchase. Winter's own was comparable, but that came from family money. This girl wore articulated armor with obvious strength enhancements, a holographic overlay in place of a helmet, a high-caliber gun-scythe that used Orichalcum and… Starmetal? No, this was not simply built of special materials, the design was wrong. Weaponry and armor like that only existed in the black-sites where they studied Anathema technology.

The glowing sigil of an ancient goddess confirmed what Winter should have realized as soon as the girl appeared. "You arrived much faster than I expected, Ruby Rose."

"Well at least someone remembered my name." She sighed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Glowing lines danced on her breastplate, reflecting the red light like it was continuously being scratched and mended. Her eyes darted around the forest. "So, where's the Ancient? We need to do this fast!"

Winter gestured toward the forest. "Somewhere in there. My men are tracking it as we speak."

"Gotcha."

Before Winter could react, she was gone. A red light darted between the trees, leaving a wave of rose petals in its wake. Winter kicked her mount back into the air and changed her channel to her own squad's. "Whitewings, this is Ice Queen. By Command's order, Theta Two is currently hunting the Ancient with us. Do not engage her. All units confirm. Over."

"This is Greylark, good copy."

"Jaeger, affirmative."

After a long pause, Heartseeker responded. "Ice Queen, this is Heartseeker… Are you serious? Over."

"Unfortunately. Over." Winter sent the frequency to Ruby Rose and waited for the inevitable.

"Hey, this is Ruby. Have you gone down the river yet?" Ruby Rose snapped into the comms. "Anyone?"

Winter shot up, climbing as fast as possible.

"Come on? What's with you guy- One minute, I need to take this call." Ruby shouted, suddenly cutting herself off for what Winter could only assume would be a string of profanity from anyone else. If her sister's stories about the girl were true, that was highly unlikely.

"Hey Blake, what's-" Ruby continued speaking over the open line. "Yeah, I know. They're coming after me too. Good thing the shielding works... What? How?"

Ruby nodded as something was relayed to her. "Have Ren keep as many people safe as he- What do you mean they're going after civilians?! Ahh!"

"Ice Queen, this is Heartseeker. Is this really Theta Two? Can we mute her? Over." He sounded so tired.

"Heartseeker, this is Ice Queen. She is Theta Two and I don't think we're capable of doing that. Over." Winter watched the red light dart around.

"Alright, killing the Ancient time, where's it at?" Ruby waited a moment, before shouting. "Hey Winter, your sister might be dying while you ignore me because of dumb protocols! Over."

"Proper radio protocol ensures that no one speaks over anyone else and makes sure that information is transmitted correctly. We were not aware that your personal call had ended." She waited for a moment. "Over."

"You did that on purpose! Do you even care about Weiss?"

Winter ground her teeth as she followed the red light.

"Over!"

"Yes, I did do that on purpose. Anyone exhibiting such lax discipline ought to be severely reprimanded. As for the being calling itself Weiss-"

"She's not a-" Ruby attempted to interrupt.

"As I was saying!" Winter shouted over her. "I doubt that Grimm such as these would pose a threat to any Anathema as old as the four of you."

"She's still the same person and you know that." Ruby said as Winter took a deep breath.

"Are you finished?" If Winter could stab someone with her tone, she would've. Did Ruby Rose not understand what simply working with her, regardless of it being ordered, would look like to everyone else? Let alone admitting that her sister remained the same person she had been her entire life? Winter pushed the thoughts down and looked over the trees, not focusing on any particular portion of them.

"Do you even care about _your sister_?" A moment's pause did not merit a response. "Also, I found the Grimm, don't know how you missed it considering how big it is, over."

Winter kicked her mount into a dive at the section of the forest painted by the red glow. Between blinks, as if it formed out of the air itself, an enormous Beowolf reared up. Not an Ancient, no, Winter had fought an Ancient Beowolf before. She'd killed one before, even if she didn't have an Aura strong enough to summon it. This beast stood so tall that its head poked above the treetops, a small Behemoth would be the right category. How had they missed it?

The monster lifted its head to the sky and howled. A wave of destruction blasted from it, nearby trees exploded into splinters while those further away bent until they snapped. Winter braced herself when the beast's maw pointed at her.

Her preparation didn't matter.

The blast of sound slammed into her mount with enough force to throw both of them away. Her own Aura held as it hit her, ears ringing from the infernal sound, but her grip slipped. She tumbled again and again, until she finally slammed into the ground.

Winter staggered back to her feet. All she could hear was endless ringing and garbled noise. What she saw defied comprehension.

Ever since the attack on Beacon, the Army had been building up profiles on each of the Anathema. These featured all known Semblances, along with any images or videos that could be found. Due to this, Winter was quite familiar with what Ruby Rose's fighting style ought to be.

The Girls in Red danced atop the Beowolf as if it were standing still. Yes, girls. Every so often, only one would be visible, but there were five of her running around. She was supposed to be limited to four.

Each of their scythes glowed with red and purple light as they struck, slicing cleanly through the monster's flesh like it wasn't even there.

One of the Rubys slipped through the Beowolf's claws as it swiped at her, the blade of her scythe stuck between its center fingers. She took off running towards its shoulder, splitting the arm in two by dragging it behind her. Another had jumped into its mouth. Moments later, the front half of the snout fell free.

A Grimm of that size called for a heavy artillery bombardment; it was being carved to ribbons by a single Anathema.

Winter's knuckles popped from how hard she was gripping her saber. Given this display, how wrong were their models of Ruby Rose? Yang Xiao-Long had beaten Winter without breaking a sweat, playing around for most of their battle and decisively ending it as soon as she was vaguely threatened. The Ruby front of her now would have beaten the Yang from back then just as easily as the later had humbled Winter.

Were they holding back that much before? If not, how quickly could the Anathema grow? How long until they stopped? There had to be some limit.

Her radio crackled, barely audible over the ringing. "Ice Queen, this is Heartseeker, do you copy? Over"

"Heartseeker, this is Ice Queen. I copy. Over."

"I have eyes on the target, but… What should I do? Over."

"Just leave this to me," Ruby interrupted.

Winter took a moment. "You heard her, Heartseeker. Focus on smaller Grimm and record everything that she's doing. Over."

"Winter, are you really-" Ruby groaned, "Actually, send me a copy of that recording too."

After another long pause, Heartseeker responded, "Understood, ma'am. Over."

Winter flew as close as she could, recording her own observations while Ruby Rose finished off the beast. Not even a minute later, it's death howl echoed throughout the valley, signifying the end of the battle. With their commander beaten, the rest of the Grimm would lose their coordination. She reported the success to Command as she glided down to the ground.

Ruby Rose had one hand on her headset, talking to someone else as Winter landed. "The Ancient's dead! You said that that would stop the bugs."

She paused for a moment. "I don't know anyone who could be in control of them! How would I even be able to tell that? It's not like people just go around calling themselves Salem cultists."

And more top secret information casually revealed.

Ruby Rose started pacing to and fro. "All right, Yang can handle the swarms. Get Weiss to her and… Weiss is already down?! If only she had the new dress."

Winter's headset crackled. "Whitewing Actual, this is Command. Please repeat, we see no change in Grimm behavior. Over."

"Command this is Whitewing Actual, Zeta One is down. I saw it myself." She took a moment to consider what had been happening. "Could another be lurking in hiding? Over."

"Negative Whitewing Actual. We have no movements that would indicate another Ancient Grimm being pres-"

"Winter," Ruby Rose appeared next to her. "Bring me up into the air. I think I know where the command Grimm really is."

Winter stared at her. Ruby Rose, the most dangerous Anathema ever known to exist. A girl who crippled a kingdom because they did something she thought was wrong. A girl who was known to have not only combat skill surpassing any Huntress, but also the ability to ensnare minds. And worst of all, a girl who Winter would likely forget all of the actions of as soon as the battle ended.

"Well?" Ruby's brow furrowed, lips held tightly together while she looked at Winter.

Weiss trusted this girl to have her heart in the right place. They were in the middle of a Grimm swarm that wasn't stopping when it ought to. This couldn't be part of Ruby's plan if 'her people' were really at risk.

Winter raised a hand to her earpiece, "Command, this is Whitewing Actual. The Ancient is dead. Theta Two believes that another is lurking in the sky. I'm bringing her up to search. Over."

* * *

They were far enough off of the ground that nothing could be made out on the battlefield besides the city, Atlas's main base, and the green blaze that was Yang Xiao-Long. Bright red light made the Nevermore barely visible, none of them were large enough to be their target.

"There it is." Ruby Rose pointed over Winter's shoulder at an empty patch of air.

"There's nothing there." Winter focused as hard as she could, but only saw the sky.

"Right, right, you can't see them," Ruby said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And… if you can't see it, I need to kill it fast."

Winter maintained her current course, weaving out of the way of a barrage of feathers.

"Look, just trust me alright. There's an invisible Grimm over there and I need you to get me close enough."

Winter let her breath out in a huff. "Alright."

She had been willing to bring Ruby up here, by herself, because she had trusted Weiss' opinion on Ruby. If it turned out that Ruby was simply insane, then some of the decisions which she expected would be hard on her sister were suddenly much easier. If Ruby wasn't mad, then there would be something important to discover.

The Gryphon shifted towards the new heading. There was nothing there. As they flew closer, Winter looked to the battle below. The Grimm had broken through their defenses. Soon the city would be finished, though she could still make out the silver and green blazes.

"Look ou-" Ruby shouted as the Gryphon suddenly moved.

Her mount bobbed and weaved as it flew ahead, like attacks were coming in from all sides. Ruby fired twice before putting the scythe away. "That didn't work… We really need Yang for this."

"Something wrong?"

"There's an invisible, insubstantial Grimm that's ordering the rest of them around."

"So you've claimed."

"And we need special techniques to have a chance of killing it." Ruby reached over her shoulder, hand stretched out to the sky. Her fingers flexed like she was grasping a string, then ripped back. "Oww, okay that didn't do enough damage."

Winter's Gryphon barrelled to the right without her commanding it. They'd done this before, moving on their own in order to dodge an attack she hadn't noticed.

"Okay good!" Ruby wrapped an arm around Winter. "Your Grimm can see it, I'll move you in case it goes after us. Duck!"

Ruby shoved her forward. Winter felt something whip against her right arm, wrapping around where her neck would have been. Unseen force tried to wrench her off of her mount. When Winter swung her blade through where it should be attached, she found nothing there. It only stopped when Ruby grabbed the air and yanked again.

"Owww! Okay, new plan. Keep us in the sky because I need to focus." Ruby wrapped both arms around Winter and began humming under her breath. One of the girl's hands moved through the airlike she was plucking strings. "Someone had to have given it new orders..."

Without any knowledge of what was coming, Winter summoned a pair of glyphs.

_Screeches interrupted their training exercise. She flicked her blade and bisected two Nevermore with one movement._

A small flock of white and blue birds erupted from her glyph and flew towards the space Ruby had indicated. Her summons were at least able to see and strike at whatever was there.

They were struck down almost as quickly as she summoned them.

Even as they fell, several blows struck Winter as well. Each one threatened to knock her free of her mount, but long practice keeping a tight grip with only her legs prevailed.

Ruby Rose shouted something in the language of Sorcery. Bright red light blossomed from the void in the sky, slowly revealing the form of an unknown Grimm. It had a spherical upper body that was covered in bone plates, with long tentacles that ended in blades. Two of those swept in, only to be parried by Winter's blade.

"Let me kill it." Winter kicked her Gryphon forward, diving straight in.

"What? Why would… Ooooh, that's a good idea!" Ruby fired a round over Winter's shoulder. Several plates on the Grimm shattered.

Winter had to focus on the fight as more attacks came from the Grimm. Unfortunately, she couldn't.

A wave of blows swept over her Aura, like diving into a cloud of knives.

"Noo, the bugs!" Ruby shouted and fired again, severing a tentacle.

"What?" Winter swiped the air with her hands to no avail.

"Invisible Grimm bugs trying to eat you! Go now!"

Winter leapt from her mount, conjuring a solid glyph under her feet. She pushed her Aura further and further as she charged toward it, each leap requiring another platform.

The knives followed her, draining Aura faster than anything Winter had ever fought before.

Shots rang out from behind her, more and more bits breaking free from her target. A trio of tentacles shot toward her. One dodged, one parried, the third broke her Aura.

Her skin burned as hundreds of little stings and bites tore it to shreds. She grit her teeth and pushed the pain to the back of her mind.

Another attack. A flash of pain from her left arm.

Her fingers no longer responded. The side of her neck burned as she narrowly avoided another strike.

Winter's final glyph was not a platform. It shot her forward as soon as her boots touched it.

The point of her saber pierced through the center of its body.

Winter landed on another glyph, falling forward when one leg gave out. The beast had managed to catch her thigh. Even as she could feel the memory of this Grimm form in her soul, her body was growing colder. Every inch of her body screamed with pain. The world had gone dark. If she got medical attention immediately, she might live. But, it would be the end of her career as a Special-

"You got it." Ruby said and _the pain went away like it had never existed._

"What did you do?" Winter looked down. Skin that had just been torn open was unmarred. Her jacket was also repaired and… pristine, like none of the night's fighting had happened.

"Healed you, now give me a second to solve this Grimm problem." Ruby looked at where the Grimm had been and began speaking in Sorcery again. Her voice rang out through the night and another of the Grimm appeared.

Winter kicked up to a ready stance before she noticed the differences. The Grimm was no longer attacking them, instead it simply floated there, undamaged. Its own colors had also changed. While still black and red primarily, the bony protrusions had become the same shade of red as Ruby's cape. It was hard to tell, but the black also seemed like it had a different texture. If that wasn't enough, the Grimm bowed to her, much like Winter's own summons did.

After a moment, it faded from existence again.

"Did you copy my Semblance?" Winter stared at the spot and felt for the new triumph, unable to keep the horror from her tone.

"Sort of?" Ruby shrugged. "I mean, it's not really like your Semblance, it's only for a year before the Grimm becomes free again. So, it's more like one of those Grimm control spells. But, only I figured it out just now, so… That's gonna take time to experiment with to see what else I can do. But taking control and stopping all of this -" she gestured to the battlefield below "- seemed like it'd be the best option."

Winter couldn't help staring at the audacity of it all. She 'just figured out' how to replicate the effects of the Schnee Semblance?!

Ruby peered at the ground. "Looks like it's working… Sort of. I guess this guy doesn't have complete control over all of them. At least the bugs have stopped."

She fired a few shots and called out, "Blake? Yang? Does anyone hear me?"

After a moment, Ruby groaned. "Great, coms are down too."

"Anyway, if you figure out how to make these guys work better, let me know. I gotta go fix things." With a wave goodbye, Ruby jumped off of the glyph.

Winter opened the Command frequency and waited for a moment when she could report. "Command, this is Whitewing Actual. Ru- Theta Two was correct. The aerial Grimm has been... dealt with. Over."

General Ironwood responded. "Whitewing Actual, this is Command. Good copy. Many units are reporting that the Grimm are either fighting each other or retreating. Do you have any intel about this? Over."

"Yes, sir. Theta Two has taken control of the lead Grimm. She's using that control to exercise partial control over all others. Over."

The line went completely silent for several seconds. While everyone in that channel may not have been privy to the full plan, General Ironwood needed to know that they would no longer be able to send anyone after Ruby Rose or Yang Xiao-Long once the Grimm fled, even if a small window of opportunity still presented itself. The chance of destroying the most dangerous Anathema was no more.

"Whitewing Actual, report to Command HQ for a full debrief."

* * *

Ruby landed in the middle of her main killing field. Burning pools of hellish green fire dotted it: grass, shrubs, even the sand! Yang stood in the middle, still gigantic and coated in sweat and ash. A blackened circle surrounded her, shards of glass glistening in the light of her Aura. Everyone else was scattered around.

"Are we safe?" Yang shouted without looking at Ruby. Her eyes flickered all around her, obviously watching the Grimm bugs. Weiss poked her head out of Yang's jacket. Her face was covered in blood, almost as bad as winter had been. Yang locked on Ruby's new pet, fist raised. "Look out behind you!"

"Yang don't! This thing's mine now." Ruby pointed at the Grimm and _put Weiss back to the way she should be._ Then, she looked at her wall… their city. "It's over."

"Ruby!" Penny shouted, diving into a hug that almost knocked Ruby over. "You did it!"

"Penny! I'm so glad that you-" Ruby frowned at the number of scrapes on her friend's face. They cut through her skin, revealing the metal underneath. _With a quick pulse of her Aura, Ruby made her whole._ "I'm so glad you're alright."

"What was that?" Penny pulled back, staring at her hands. "One moment I was damaged and the next I'm fine."

"I healed all of the damage the Grimm did." She really didn't have the time to explain how it worked, especially with-

"What happened to you?!" Ruby screamed as she looked at Pyrrha.

Physically, there were problems. Her skin was lined with cuts, but that was expected. Worse was her Aura… her soul. _Its edges were torn and a second, much smaller, soul had been stitched onto it. Something was attached to both souls, leaching into them._

Pyrrha stared at Ruby, gaping. "What?"

"Your soul's been butchered and torn and… ahh, no!" _Ruby shoved as much energy as she could into healing this monstrosity. A flash of red light engulfed Pyrrha. When it dissipated, her physical wounds were gone, as were most of the spiritual ones._ "I can't get all of it."

 _All three of those souls were more connected, but some of the damage was still there._ "Why can't I get all of it?"

"That may be my fault." Weiss said as she landed. "We had to rush the soul surgery and it wasn't exactly something I'd practiced before."

"That doesn't make any sense! I could fix the rest of the damage her soul had." Ruby growled at no one in particular. Sure, she hadn't been able to fix any damage that either she herself or normal people caused. If she personally caused the problem, then not being able to set it right sort of made sense. Even though the Auras of normal people twisted Fate to their liking, it was nothing compared to the amount of damage that any Anathema could. Weiss was Anathema, just like Blake and Yang, so why couldn't Ruby fix her actions?! "I'll need more answers once we have time."

Ruby checked over the rest of their group. Ren, Nora, and Emerald were all pretty bad, but were still standing. There were others who needed her attention more. Ruby took a couple of steps toward the walls.

"I am not sure if anyone in there is still alive." Pyrrha said softly.

"They are. I can hear their Auras still." Ruby looked at her team once more. "I'm going up there to heal them. If anyone has the energy to help, we need it."

Ruby _vanished in a cloud of petals_ before anyone could react. She reappeared on the wall, right next to Blake. Screaming and sobbing echoed around her.

"Please, keep your eyes open." Blake had her hands pressed to Maple's belly. A Nevermore feather had pierced through, tearing her open. The scene was all too familiar. _Weiss, laying flat on the ground, her stomach torn open by a Beowolf._ But… this time Ruby could actually do something about it.

"Blake." Ruby clenched her teeth at the sight. "Pull the feather out."

"But she'll di-!" Blake turned, eyes wild when they met Ruby's. "Right… right. The healing thing."

 _Ruby closed the wound and reversed the damage as soon as it was clear.._ Color returned to her cheeks and life to her eyes. "Lady Ruby? I'm… I-" Maple patted her stomach, she'd even fixed her shirt. "- How am I alive?"

"I fixed you and now..." Ruby stared down the wall. Feathers dotted bodies all up and down the stretch. Those who were not pierced had their bodies destroyed by countless tiny bites and stings. _Most of their patterns were torn to shreds, barely holding on._

A young man screamed into his hands. His eyes were ruined.

"It's going to be alright. It'll hurt for a while, but I can fix it," Ruby touched the man's shoulder, but she couldn't afford to heal him right now. "Can you wait a few days?"

"Who- Lady Ruby?"

"Yeah." Ruby was already looking for the next person. "I'm going to save as many as I can. Can you hold on?"

He trembled, still sobbing. "I- I will be."

"Thank you." Ruby stepped forward.

An older woman was laying face down. She sucked in each breath, begging for help. They took the tendons in her elbows and knees. She'd also live without help.

Ruby walked past to an unconscious man whose heartbeat was barely audible. _Ruby restored him._

He sucked in a breath, gasping, "What, who?"

He looked up at her, tears in his eyes.

"I need you to help find people. Tell them that I'm on my way and I'm going to save as many of them as I can. Those who aren't critical-" The metal edges of her gauntlets bit into her fingers as she balled her fists. "-will need to wait for a while."

"Of course, right away!." He bowed and ran off.

Auras recover fast, but they weren't unlimited, even those of the Anathema. Thousands of people were injured with who knew how many already dead. Too many to heal tonight, even if she had been full.

A raven flew up behind her, _turning into Weiss in a flash of light._ "Wait! We need to figure out how to manage this."

"Weiss." Ruby continued walking down the wall. She plucked any Nevermore feather still in a living person, _a flash of red light healing their wounds as soon as it was free._ "People are dying right now. I don't have the time to figure things out or organize them, that's your job."

"We need to come up with a plan."

"Our. People. Are. Dying! Right now another one could be bleeding out." Ruby spared a moment to stare Weiss in the eyes before walking to the next person. "I'm the only one who can heal them like this. So, stop distracting me."

Weiss followed, barely keeping pace. "I don't think that you going around and-"

Ruby slowed her pace, looking at someone who was lying in a pool of blood. _Her heartbeat was racing and the only damage to her pattern was broken bones._ Healthy enough for now.

"-making the call about who to treat is healthy for you. There have to be some doctors out there. If we help them first, then they can make those decisions, like they've been trained to."

Ruby couldn't ignore that point. Some of her people would be able to help. There weren't many, most of the 'professionals' fled to Atlas when they took over, but there were some. While it could be a waste of precious Aura, _Ruby still looked to the future. Countless paths narrowed down to a few options, each with their own tradeoffs._ No happy ending, not tonight.

"Yang knows most of the… doctors is the wrong word, but it's close enough. I'm going to keep moving down the wall and un-cripple any of the medics that I recognize, but _I'm focusing on saving lives._ "

One of the people nearby called out to her. A girl maybe three years older than Ruby, her left arm was missing. A hasty tourniquet was the only thing keeping her from bleeding out.

"I'm sorry, but you'll live and the others won't," Ruby whispered, teeth clenched so hard that her jaw hurt. She turned back to Weiss. "Cauterize the wound an- No, you shouldn't do that if I can't heal it later. Get Blake or Yang to."

Weiss pursed her lips, something obviously on the tip of her tongue. _Ruby could have forced her to accept this, but that would be a waste of Aura._ After a brief moment, Weiss nodded. "Very well. But, we're going to talk about you causing yourself more stress."

"Weiss, I'm fine."

"No, you're acting just like you did before you became The Girl in Red."

"That's-" Ruby started shouting, but managed to stop herself. There were people who needed her and arguing about this wouldn't help them. "You're wrong."

"I hope so."

"Get that message to Yang." Ruby said as she walked away from a transforming Weiss.

She continued her march, healing those who needed it. Step by step, her people were made whole again. Many were lost, there was no path Ruby could have chosen to prevent that. But, a hundred who would have died still lived. With each person she renewed, she could feel more energy stirring around her. By the end of the night, a new name for her was being whispered.

Ruby Rose, Maiden of Salvation

For once, she didn't mind.


	6. Chapter 1.i

White concrete walls and lighting, that made Qrow squint, were the only features of the Atlas fort that he was following some random grunt through.

"I'm telling you, Tai, that brunette was into you," Qrow swayed back and forth, taking another squig from his flask. "If Jimmy lets us go early, you still have a shot."

"Pretty sure she was closer to the girls' age than mine... and she was mostly interested in this little fella," Taiyang reached down to give his corgi a scratch. The man leading them deeper into the Atlas base made a noise under his breath.

Qrow snorted, "Old enough that she wasn't carded and picking up chicks with your dog is a time honored tradition." Qrow took a longer drink while said dog watched him.

"Is that why you always volunteered to walk him?"

"Might be." Qrow shrugged. Zwei was the second-best wingman he'd ever had. "Besides, it's been how many years now?"

"I think that I- We have bigger problems to worry about."

"We've been chasing shadows for a week. You've got time for one night." Qrow rolled his eyes. "Whatever happened to the man who joined me on the month-long crawl through Vale's best bars?"

"He fell in love and got married."

Qrow couldn't argue with that. Summer had been something special; just being able to lead their team at Beacon had proven that. Raising a pair of girls who… kept their morals despite all of the problems, cinched it.

Harbinger's weight was suddenly all he could think about as its blade bounced on his back. No way Jimmy'd ask them, just the two of them, for an immediate call this late at night if it didn't involve the girls in some way. Maybe, maybe, Atlas did their job right for once and both of them died without too much pain.

They spent another five minutes walking deeper into the base, ending at a plain door with 'Top Secret Encrypted Communications Station B' on the outside. Not exactly top secret if you went around labeling it like that.

"General Ironwood will be calling this station shortly." The grunt said as he opened the door for Qrow. The room was tiny with a single screen on the opposite side. A table with generic office chairs filled most of it.

Qrow barely had time to cross the room and leaned against one of the walls before the terminal in the center of the table flicked on. Holograms of James Ironwood and Winter Schnee appeared in the center of it. Neither looked like they'd had much sleep. "Qrow, Taiyang, thank you for coming in on such short notice."

"How's it going, Jimmy?" Qrow leaned against one of the walls. "You two look like shit."

"A lot has happened over the past few days." James took a long breath, "For the only good news, you two were correct. We've ID'd not only the unknown Anathema that met up with Weiss, but also where they went."

Qrow sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Something's telling me that I'm not gonna like this."

"The unknown Anathema was Yang XiaoLong and that entire group has reconvened with the rest of team RWBY."

"Great, just fucking great!" Qrow shouted while Tai murmured under his breath. After a long groan, Qrow turned back to Jimmy. "Alright, so they're all back together. That still isn't important enough for this? You could've just called us normally."

James took a long breath, "There are things that we do need to discuss under a secure line. To put it simply, we've lost."

* * *

"What?" The images of Qrow and TaiYang shouted while James looked over his most recent reports.

"Our plan was to siege the Anathema and sweep in once Salem made her move. We lost the fight against them and I doubt we'll have another chance for years; due to how powerful they've grown."

"You're kidding…" TaiYang mumbled just loud enough to be transmitted.

James opened a video screen next to his head. "Watch this and you'll understand."

The first segment concerned the bombardment on Theta Three, Yang XiaoLong. TaiYang winced as the first round of explosions covered her. James held in a sigh; while TaiYang was a skilled Hunter, he wasn't suited for this sort of work.

Qrow, on the other hand, kept close watch despite being drunk enough that he was swaying. "That's a ton of Dust."

"About one-hundred-thousand Lien per shot. Enough Dust to kill most Hunters from a single hit."

"You just shot-" Tai's eyes continued tracking the explosions. "Way more than my house at her?!"

"Yes," James paused the video and switched to the next one. "To no effect. A single barrage like this took out a Silver Anathema foolish enough to try and escape via turning into a bird three years ago. Given this result, we're reconsidering our strategies for her. While we're certain that her Aura was being expended, it was at a much lower rate than expected."

"What's really going on? That's scary alright, but nothing too far out of the norm." Qrow grumbled.

"If we had only seen this sort of growth, we would not be as concerned." James played the second video. It was Ruby Rose's attack on the Sixth Air-Defense Battalion from the perspective of several of the robots failing to shoot her. "Through all of _this_ we only suffered ten casualties and zero fatalities. She was holding back, just like during the attack on Beacon."

"Might've been too overwhelmed to finish anyone off," Qrow muttered, but the grimace made his feelings plain to see.

"Did she just combine my style with your's?" TaiYang asked Qrow.

"Uhh… Shit, yeah she did." Qrow paused. "Probably picked it up from Firecracker."

"Yeah, but… I thought Yang was the martial artist… Did I forget something else?" TaiYang lowered his head.

"Pay close attention to the next one." James started the final, and clearest, video; her destruction of the Behemoth Beowolf.

"Neither video does her speed and her engagement range justice." Winter stepped forward, "Nor her newest Semblance."

"How can it get worse?" TaiYang gaped at them. "We're already in multiple elite teams would lose the fight territory."

"That we are," Winter nodded, "Ruby Rose has developed the ability to reverse any damage done to a person along with something disturbingly similar to my own Semblance."

Qrow slammed his head back, presumably against a wall, and closed his eyes. "Lay it on me. What can she summon now? The Behemoth?"

"No, something much more dangerous." Winter continued after a slight pause. "During the battle, she slew a previously unknown-type of Grimm, temporary designation Man-O-War, that was commanding the swarm and revealed the power to take control of it. We're… updating our information about how the Grimm follow orders from this knowledge, but the end result is that Ruby Rose appears to have command of all Grimm within a ten-kilometer radius. Including the immaterial ones that Ozpin warned us about."

James pulled up his final report on their current focus. "She has not yet revealed this new ability to the world at large nor has she indicated her desires for the other settlements that fall within her range. While we are researching methods of detecting and fighting these controlling Grimm, I wouldn't expect results for several years, if ever." Of course, one part of the file was already becoming corrupted.

  


_Active High-Value Targets_

_Capture Preferred_

_Raven Branwen - Designation: Theta One. Last Known Location: Southern Sanus._

_Blake Belladonna - Designation: Theta Four. Last Known Location: Aincrad._

_Weiss Schnee - Designation: Theta Five. Last Known Location: Aincrad._

_Penny Polendina - Designation: Theta Seven. Last Known Location: Aincrad._

_Pyrrha Nikos - Designation: Theta Eight. Last Known Location: Aincrad._

_Arthur Watts - Designation: Sigma Four. Last Known Location: City of Vaccuo._

_Ivan Merlot - Designation: Sigma Thirteen. Last Known Location: Eastern Forever Fall._

_Guame Verd - Designation: Sigma Sixteen. Last Known Location: City of Mistral._

_Sienna Khan - Designation: Sigma Twenty. Last Known Location: The Menagerie._

_Ilia Amitola - Designation: Sigma Twenty Four. Last Known Location: City of Vale._

  


_Kill_

_Yang XiaoLong - Designation: Theta Three. Last Known Location: Aincrad._

_Cinder Fall - Designation: Theta Nine(Sigma Twenty Two). Last Known Location: Beacon Academy Vaults._

_Jazzel Charr - Designation: Sigma Six. Last Known Location: City of Vaccuo._

_Hazel Rainart - Designation: Sigma Five. Last Known Location: Windpath._

  


_Report Any Contact(Strict Observation Only)_

_Salem - Designation: Theta Zero. Last Known Location: Unknown._

_R̸̹̝̐́ữ̶̪b̸̖̖̎y̴͇̅͑ ̸͍̤̒͛R̷̢̔͐o̵̪͐š̸̢̍é̷̢̪ aka The Girl I n̸̎ͅ ̶͕̄Ř̴͜é̴͖d̶̝͂ ̸̧̃-̵̧͝ ̶͕̄D̷̺͛e̸̤̕s̷̫͌ ignation: T̷̻́ḩ̵̻̈́Eta Two. Last Known Locä̵́ͅt̶̝͋ĭ̶̝o̴̲͗n̵̲͒:̷̨̏ ̸̰̈́Ả̴̫i̴͗ͅNcra̷d̵̫͛._

  


All four remained silent for several minutes while Qrow and TaiYang digested the news. It was the first time that anyone reached the same classification as Salem herself. However, Ruby's new influence, along with Weiss' latest warning about the state of her mental health, had kept James up all night for the past day. If she had been this dangerous at Beacon…

Qrow spoke first, "Welp, that's it then, we lose. The only one who might be able to stop them is Salem and it sounds like she got screwed by this too. What's the plan now, Jimmy?"

"There is no plan." James took his own seat, Winter stepped behind him and to the left. "I've been recalled to Atlas to explain how I allowed the situation to reach this point. If I'm lucky, I'll be allowed to peacefully retire from my command."

"They'd sack you over this?" TaiYang clearly had not been part of any sort of structure for a long time.

"This is my failure, the greatest defeat in Atlas' history, even if only our highest commanders realize it. It was by my order that we embarked on a prolonged siege that allowed them to reach this point. It was by my order that we didn't switch our target from the Grimm to Ruby when we had a chance to take her out. Our other top officers have previously claimed that I have been corrupted by the Anathema, Weiss in particular, and I can no longer disagree."

"I told you she was dangerous." Qrow muttered under his breath, but the room's microphone still picked him up.

"If it was just her, I wouldn't be worried." James sighed. "My involvement in many of our more secretive projects can't be unwound quickly, but my command over the army itself and Atlas Academy can. The nature of maintaining the blockade will be determined by my replacement."

"So.. we're on our own then."

"You'll still have Leo and Locasta as resources."

"For what good they are."

James couldn't help agreeing. "I'm certain that the two of you, at least, will be able to weather whatever changes they want."

* * *

Tai didn't say anything during their walk back. Ever since Qrow brought him into this secret masters of the world nonsense, he'd been two steps behind everyone else.

"Hey, Tai." His partner shook his flask at the ground. A single drop of whatever Qrow filled it with fell to the pavement. "You got any left?"

"You know I don't carry one of those."

Qrow stared at him for a moment, swaying like a pendulum. "Bummer."

Tai mostly caught up by the time Qrow turned around. He meandered down the sidewalk, moving towards each light pole and using one arm to push past, barely avoiding each collision. The inn was only a few blocks away, but it would take half an hour at the current pace. After three more poles, Qrow turned back around. "So, what'd you want to do now?"

"Sleep." Tai rotated Qrow back and threw an arm around his back. With support, he could make a decent pace.

"You know what I mean."

Tai sighed. "I'll do what I should've done a long time ago."

Qrow raised an eyebrow at him. "What's that?"

"Go have a talk with my girls."

"Any idea what you'll say to them?"

"Nope."

"Heh," Qrow leaned back, staring at the sky. Tai held him up because there's no way he'd manage it himself. "Might want to bring up the gods and all that crap. Maybe this is all part of that big cosmic plan to kill the Grimm."

"You mean Ruby's talk with one?" Tai shivered. If someone as jaded as Qrow thought a goddess talked to Ruby, then he had to believe it happened.

"Yeah, I was just thinking that this might be it, you know?"

"You could always ask. I'm sure they'd want to see you." Tai lightly tapped Qrow's arm, leaning him back upright.

"Nah, I've got a date with a creepy basement and avenging Oz."

Tai grimaced. The other Anathema that was still trapped in Beacon.

"I'll pull everyone we were bringing on this wild goose chase there and smoke her out for good."

"Yeah…" Tai said softly, stopping. Qrow staggered forward without him, slowly fading into the darkness of the night.

"What?" Eventually he turned around. "You coming?"

"Nothing, it's just… Do you have a message for Ruby and Yang?"

"What're you talking-" Qrow's eyes went wide, "Hey. Hey! Look, I'm not gonna just up and die on you buddy."

"She killed Glynda and Ozpin! That's not something you can just say 'I'll be fine' to." Tai walked up to him and grabbed the collar of Qrow's jacket. "I've lost too many people to that shit already!"

"Tai, I-" Qrow tried to pull away, but he'd never been able to beat Tai in a grapple, even when he was sober. "I'll be careful, alright! I'll have Pete, Barty, and half of Vale's Hunter's chomping at the bit for this fight!"

"And you won't just run ahead of them? You'll fight like someone on a team?"

"I'm the best fighter we've got left and I know how to be on a team."

"Dammit, Qrow!" Tai threw him back. "You know what I mean!"

Qrow toppled over, spinning as he failed to get his feet under himself. "It's what we signed up for as Huntsmen!"

"That doesn't mean you need to take so much of it onto yourself!"

"Better me than someone with something to live for."

"Qr-"

"Don't give me that. There's maybe four people left alive who give a damn about me and three of them are on Remnant's most wanted. Atlas' most wanted… Whatever, same thing."

Tai sat down next to him. "First off, you're wrong about that. And secondly, you and the girls are the only family I have left too and right now. This... it feels a lot like when Summer ran out to help with a 'crisis from Oz'."

Qrow took a moment. "Shit. Fuck! I'm sorry, Tai, I-"

"I still remember her last words."

Tai looked up to the stars and rubbed his eyes. When he opened his mouth, his breath caught in his throat. "B-brownies are in the oven for Yang's bake sale. They need ten more minutes."

"Fucking hell, of course she would, of fucking course." Qrow leaned forward, half laughing.

"So, no brownies or 'I'll be fine' from you." Tai poked him in the center of his chest. "You hear me?"

"Alright… alright…" Qrow flopped back, laying down. "I'll figure something out… Just give me five minutes to rest."

Tai let out the breath he was holding and laid down next to Qrow. "I'm going to hold you to that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **  
> **A/N: July was hell and most of August was recovering from it. I'm hoping to get back up to speed, but we'll see how the true vacation next week interacts with that.****  
> 


	7. Chapter 2.1

"This is the last one. I can feel two people underneath." Pyrrha opened her eyes, rubbing them and stifling a yawn. Long gashes ran along the side of the building in front of her, right below where the wall gave in. _A pair of bodies, one adult and one child, were in the basement._ What used to consume all of her focus was as effortless as breathing.

She couldn't help thinking about how easily Ruby had learned astrology, going further than Pyrrha could within months. She flexed her hand, sparks dancing between her fingers that she could both see _and feel with her mind's eye_.

"I'll get them out," Yang stepped into the building. Green light flashed from the door as she added even more ash to the cloud rotating around her.

Pyrrha shivered because she didn't stop paying attention quickly enough. _It felt as wrong as it had the first time, like a diseased flame consuming everything near it._ Something about her new senses did not like when Yang did this, but there was no reason for her to bring it up. Not before it was safe.

 _'_ _Help however you can. But, whatever you do, make sure that it doesn't make Ruby more stressed without very good reason.'_ Weiss' command for all four of them was still at the front of her mind. There were not many ways to help Ruby directly. The least she could do was wait for a good time and deal with a bit of discomfort until then.

Yang returned with a body over each shoulder. They'd also been torn up by the insect Grimm. One was unconscious and the other had a swollen leg that was not bending the right direction. "They're in bad shape. I'll be back in five. Meet you at..." She drew out the last word.

"The intersection between Barret and Grinn?" Emerald asked and Yang grinned.

Pyrrha double checked her own scroll and confirmed that it was correct.

"Hehehe, I still can't believe they actually renamed it," Yang shook her head and kicked off into the air. With three beats of her wings, she vanished from sight.

"I don't understand the reference." Penny said from behind.

Pyrrha took a breath and looked at the rest of her group. "Shall we?"

"Sure." Emerald shrugged.

"Absolutely." Penny saluted.

Pyrrha had Emerald walk a short distance in front of her, with Penny by her side. They were heading back through an area that had been searched and running to the next section would simply exhaust them. This sort of search and rescue was a mission of endurance, not speed, and her focus was being challenged.

Technically, she was supposed to have slept for a full eight hours in preparation for their second day of searching. In actuality, she'd only gotten around five.

Pyrrha took a large swig of a foul tasting energy drink and double-checked the route back.

Most buildings were old, the sort that wouldn't be out of place in Mistral proper, but with an obvious Valish influence. The buildings which were still present resembled home, in any case. New dirt paths had been created by destroying countless buildings, _which still reeked of Yang's fire._ In other areas, what had been a road now had houses erected in the middle of it. The unnaturally smooth stone and blackened brass was another sign of Yang's influence. There was no wood anywhere in the construction, just metal and stone that twisted together in the most bizarre way possible. No normal person would be able to do something like that because it had been grown from ground to its final form. Worse were the gigantic iron pillars which, from a distance, looked like unsettling trees clawing at the sky with leafless branches. Each branch had electricity sparking between its end, far above everyone's heads.

At the foot of each tower were four shrines, one for each member of team RWBY. These four were still intact, neither Grimm nor Nora's hammer having noticed them.

Yang's was the most prominent and placed to the East, befitting the image that her people had of their Queen and goddess. Most of her shrines had settled on the black-winged, black-haired form she favored in battle.

Blake's was only slightly smaller and to the South, which Pyrrha imagined would be more than a little uncomfortable if Blake knew about the spiritual associations with it. It was a dual-faced shrine, with books on one side and blades on the other.

Weiss' was the newest, roughest, and placed to the West ,the only association that Pyrrha actually agreed with. It was also unornamented, merely being a statue of Weiss with the Schnee symbol juxtaposed on the moon.

Ruby took the North. Not only was hers the only shrine to lack a face, it was decidedly more war-like than the others with spear heads and spent bullet casings decorating the backdrop.

Emerald stepped to Ruby's and looked down at it. After a bit of time staring at it, she pulled some Lien out of her pocket. "So… how are you supposed to do this...?"

"What?" Pyrrha narrowed her eyes and stared.

"Well, the four of them're doing better than other gods and Salem spends stupid amounts of time trying to get people to worship her. If I have to pay my divine tax to someone, might as well be someone who cares." Emerald shrugged and looked at it again. "I've seen what Salem's cults do and I'm pretty sure burning things while dancing around in Grimm masks wouldn't work here."

Pyrrha stared at her, trying to find the words to explain just how wrong everything Emerald had just said was.

"I do not think that is a good idea." Penny stepped past Pyrrha.

"Thank you," Pyrrha released the breath she'd been holding. Those were good first words.

"Supporting cults is bad and we are not supposed to do things which make Ruby stressed. I have forty-three messages referencing how much she dislikes its existence." Penny did not follow through with a good point. While Pyrrha knew that Ruby once held similar feelings to Ren and Nora, the existence of such a shrine meant that she must have changed her mind.

"I-" Pyrrha hesitated, keeping close watch on Penny. "I don't think that there would be any harm in making an offering." Penny frowned, but didn't interrupt. "However, without actual belief behind it, I doubt it would help."

"Hmm," Emerald looked at the shrine for a while, then placed a pair of bills on Ruby's shrine. "Not like it's doing any good right now… Do I burn it?"

"I don't-" Penny began saying something. "You don't need to..

"Burning is traditional, but you shouldn't need to." Pyrrha pointed at the small numbers of items left on the other shrines. "We can ask Ruby how she'd prefer to receive offerings once everyone is safe."

"She is not going to want any…" Penny grumbled quietly.

* * *

Yang stepped through the side door of the warehouse they'd turned into a makeshift hospital. It was a block away from the city's only clinic, which was more than full already. Rows of beds and tables stretched from wall to wall with just enough space for two people to walk by in between them. The very few doctors they had were focused on the side she'd come in on.

"Two critical inbound, blood loss and dehydration. Mother and daughter, I think." Yang announced as she slid the first of her pair onto a table with a thin blanket. Her leg had been crushed by the rubble, not an injury that Ruby could help with. One of their doctors and a pair of teenagers ran over with half of a blood bag and an IV tube that had been recently patched. "Did we run out again?"

"Yes, Lady Yang." Doctor Char bowed his head to her, hand briefly making a sign of grasped fire over his heart before 'flinging it into the air' like a fireball that would then explode into a pretty green flare. She'd done that once or twice to show off, but it still stuck with her entire cult. "Needles and tubing."

"Give me a moment." Yang placed the other patient down and _drew upon the cloud of debris orbiting her. She pictured a proper IV in her mind while the compressed particles moved next to an empty stone table. Thin needles of shiny titanium began forming with all of the holes from the design she'd looked at. Next came a long line of plastic tubing that would fit the needles. Her gathered cloud of material was devoured so much faster by anything besides metal, but this needed to be flexible. It was almost gone by the time she had about forty yards. The very last bit went to more bags._ "That should get you going."

"Thank you," He bowed again and got to work.

"Do you know where Ruby- Er, I mean, Doctor Rose is?" Yang glanced around, her sister was nowhere to be seen.

"I believe she was meeting with Lady Weiss." Char nodded towards the offices as he set up the IV.

"Gotcha, take good care of them." Yang waved as she walked past. He bowed his head, hands too busy to sign.

Their beds were covered with people awaiting Ruby's attention. Yang checked a few of their mid-priorities as she made her way back. She stopped by one bed that had a pool of blood forming underneath. It was in the "stable" section. An older man had pulled his stitches open despite the tendons in his arms and legs being severed. According to the paper at the end of the bed, this was the second time.

"Hey," Yang snapped her fingers in front of his face. "You with me?"

No response, but he was still breathing.

"Marigold! Get over here with a burn kit!" Yang shouted at one of the nearest people running around. She was a Pharos Academy graduate who'd failed to get into a Hunter Academy, but merely having taken classes on basic wound care made her one of the best that they had. It took just long enough for Yang to pull the man's gown to the side and start cleaning up around the wound for her to arrive. "If he's pulled them this much, I'm going to cauterize it closed. Move him up to high-priority for Ruby to fix."

That was the only 'good' thing they'd found. Ruby could heal any damage Yang did, even if it was damage meant for healing. She could close wounds reliably and then both what she did and what the Grimm did to open the person up was removed. With a burst of green flames, she permanently sealed the wound until he could receive her sister's attention.

"Thanks, you handling everything alright?." Yang smiled at Marigold.

The woman sighed, bags under her eyes clearly visible. "I'll be fine, Lady Yang."

Yang nodded and headed for the back with a bottle of rubbing alcohol in hand and a small package in the other. No one else needed her direct attention and that was a godsend. She held the bottle under her nose.

_Drink it._

"Shut up," Yang muttered as she opened the door to… something.

Weiss had a Faunus man with torn off ears on the table and she was… running her fingers along his chest. Where they pressed _his body shifted unnaturally. She drew them from belly to his head, making his cheeks swell, then finally to the ruined ears. With careful movements, she drew more skin from the stumps and pulled the clump of flesh up to reform them._

Ruby had her eyes closed, head leaning against the wall in the corner of the room. "That fixed some of it, but the deep damage is still there."

"What deep damage? Nerves? His eardrums?" Weiss got to work on the second ear.

"Probably? I'm not sure."

Weiss snapped her fingers in front of her patient's eyes and spoke louder. "Can you hear that?"

The man's ears flattened and raised, but he shook his head.

"Drat," Weiss looked up from her work and smiled at Yang's wave. "Hey there. He's all yours Ruby."

"Got it." With a wave of her hand, _Ruby undid every injury on the man._

"I can hear now!" He shouted, hands touching his ears. "But, something feels different."

"I can't undo the work Weiss did." Ruby blinked several times, her head nodding forward during the last one. "But all of your wounds from the Grimm should be healed."

"I don't know what to say." He stood up tentatively, then immediately dropped to his knees. "Thank you for this blessing. Lady Weiss, Lady Ruby... I'll… I don't know how to..."

"If you have the energy, go to the front of this building and ask about which search and rescue team to join," Weiss said. "That's the only gratitude we need."

"Of course, thank you." He hurried out of the room after bowing to Yang as well.

"Sooo, that was a... something." Yang placed a pair of Atlas 'Field Meals' on the table. "Also, I'm betting you two haven't eaten since… eight? When did we get up."

Ruby tentatively looked at the silver package. From what Yang had heard, overly salted bland was the best option for those.

"Yours has cookies?"

Ruby squinted at the package. "They call those things cookies, but that's a lie."

"I could zap you and let you eat rocks." Yang popped one of her favorite berries into her mouth.

After a moment, both of them nodded. "Please."

Yang snapped her fingers and _gave them her blessing through small green flames wafting over them._ It wasn't something they could use on the entire city, but two people would be fine. "So, what was that?"

Weiss took a breath. "I was attempting to heal him. If I had succeeded, then we'd be able to heal everyone at least twice as quickly."

Both of them looked back to Ruby. She'd leaned on the table, eyelids fluttering open and closed. There were no bags under her eyes… or any of team RWBY's… but none of them had as much weight on their shoulders as the only person who could fix _all_ of the injuries.

Yang took a long breath, exhaling slowly. "So, what now?"

Ruby dropped her head to the table. "Weiss has some… ideas."

"Some is an understatement." Weiss pulled her scroll out and showed Yang a lot of numbers. "I've run rough ideas for a variety of solutions to the current problem."

"And why didn't you lead with them?" Yang could practically hear the other shoe dropping.

 _'_ _Blake, are you in range?'_ Weiss' voice rang out in Yang's head, already confirming that Blake was back.

 _'_ _Just got back. Two more boxes of antibiotics.'_ Blake replied.

_'_ _We're showing Yang my plans.'_

_'_ _This isn't making me less concerned.'_ Yang thought. If she knew how to mentally roll her eyes, she would've.

The first column shown had 'Ask Atlas for help' as a title. It dramatically lowered the number of people in the dead column. A couple of letters and numbers were peeking in from the next, but Yang couldn't make it out.

 _'_ _So… Why is asking Atlas first on the list?'_ Yang wasn't necessarily opposed to that, but they did just try to kill her.

 _'_ _Our worst problem is lack of manpower. Even with the number of people we've already gotten up, we won't find everyone before deaths by dehydration begin. Even if I had been able to heal people too, we would be doubling the number of active bodies at best.'_ Weiss pointed to a cell marked 'rescue workers'. _'Asking Atlas should give us enough to get over that particular hump.'_

Yang frowned. _'They just tried to kill us in the middle of a Grimm attack. We're just going to let them waltz in?'_

"The attack was one Huntress jumping at the chance, but I already told her that," Ruby grumbled under her breath. _'I don't think it's all of Atlas who's mad at us, just most of them.'_

 _'_ _You really think they'll help after everything we've done to them?'_ Blake sent a series of images to them: broken Atlas transports, injured specialists, crates labeled "Atlas Military" stacked up in their warehouse.

 _'_ _We'll need to talk to them and clear the air regarding all of that eventually.'_ Weiss sighed in the room. _'There will be… challenges, but we need more people finding survivors. If we don't get help, we're doomed.'_

Yang frowned at Weiss. Wasn't saying that exactly the sort of thing that would make Ruby feel worse. Also, Atlas… really? There had to be someone else who could he-

_"_ _Please!" Emiran, now an old man who she had not seen for the better part of two decades, begged from his knees. "While we debate going to war, the Wasting is still ravaging the eastern provinces. We must find something to take care of them fir-."_

_"_ _The Wasting is obviously Four Faced Raven's work." Ivory Tsunami, her finest commander, cut him off. "While he is a vile, duplicitous beast, he is no fool. He would not unleash a plague like this without a countermeasure."_

_"_ _Majester Viridian cou-"_

_"_ _Viridian will still remember how I gutted him in his own ballroom." Tialeth spat. "What aid would he possibly provide?"_

_"_ _You Eminence... Grandmother… please." Emiran bowed his head down to the floor, almost falling in the process. Mortal bodies grew so feeble with age. "While I do not doubt that he remembers, he is still a man of great compassion and that happened when I was just a boy. He has also been an enemy of Four Faced Raven for much longer."_

_Tialeth spun the wine in her cup while she considered her fellow Solars. Who else had Viridian's skills... Who else could she ask to make sure he didn't make matters worse._

Yang blinked several times, then looked back up. _'If we're going to ask Atlas, we should ask Vale too.'_

Weiss squinted at her, pursing her lips. _'Why Vale? They are, if anything, the only Kingdom with more reason to hate us.'_

 _'_ _Weiss, I love you, but you're in deep with Atlas.'_ Yang kicked her feet up onto the table and stared at the ceiling. _'Look, Vale's never liked how Atlas does things and even though Atlas is fighting us right now, we're still a short airship ride from Vale's borders. If we need to make peace with Atlas, why not add Vale to the list?'_

 _'_ _Vale's… better… but I still don't think they'd actually help. The Menagerie would be… not quite happy to help us, but enough of them would chip in if they could.'_ Blake added before anyone else could respond. _'Even if we're Anathema, we've also been rejected by the same people.'_

 _'_ _Even if they'd be happy to help. They're too far away for our timescale and have fewer resources.'_ Weiss responded.

Yang mostly ignored Weiss there. _'Sure, we can talk to them too. Though we'd probably want Mistral first since they're closer.'_ Yang thought back. Then slapped her forehead a moment later, once she realized some of what Blake meant. If anyone would be willing to help them, it would be the Faunus, who were persecuted as monsters because of how the Silver Anathema worked. _'Crap, right. We really should've talked to them sooner.'_

 _'_ _We were busy preparing to fight Atlas.'_ Blake verbally shrugged.

 _'_ _Do they have any of their own airships? Because that would be news to me and if not then we would need one of the kingdoms to fly them in,and Atlas to not shoot them down.'_ Weiss put the scroll down in front of Yang. _'Without their approval, we won't get anywhere.'_

 _'_ _Plan "talk to everyone", should include Vacuo even if I don't think they'd get here in time, but we should still include them?'_ Ruby asked.

 _'_ _Sure.'_ The others responded.

Weiss tapped her scroll again. _'Which brings me to our second problem. Despite my best efforts, I'm not able to fix people like Ruby can. Even if we get them to safety, it will still be weeks, if not months, before they're all healed.'_

She took a moment to look at Ruby. _'Are you certain you want to be here for this?'_

 _'_ _I already know what's going to happen.'_ Ruby lowered her head, then pointed at the scroll. _'It's important that I'm here.'_

The next column on Weiss' spreadsheet began with "Sum". Yang touched the screen and tried swiping, but Weiss' finger stopped her from revealing what the next plan was. _'Weiss.'_

Weiss lifted her finger up and placed her hand on top of Yang's. _'Yang, I want you to know that this is the result of considering every possible option we have available and my best guess on their relative effectiveness.'_

_'_ _I really don't like the sound of that.'_

_'_ _You shouldn't,'_ Blake thought.

Ruby groaned, but didn't say anything.

 _'_ _The rest of you already know what this idea is.'_ Yang pressed down harder.

_'_ _Punch her.'_

_'_ _Shut up!'_ Yang mentally shouted. _'Oops, sorry.'_

Weiss slowly lifted her hand. _'I asked Ruby and Blake about it first because I knew you would react to it-'_

Yang swiped to the side and saw red. The title of the next column was "Summon Demons with Magical Healing Abilities".

_'_ _-badly.'_

"What the actual fuck!" Yang's heart pounded in her neck. "Why would you even consider-"

 _Weiss' glare pierced into the depths of her soul. A frigid wasteland with neither compassion nor remorse reflected in her eyes, so cold it quelled some of her flame… even if it wasn't doused completely._ "Because we have thousands of lives at stake and I had to consider every possible option. I have not done this yet, just estimated the impact if I did."

 _'_ _What happened?'_ Blake asked.

 _'_ _Yang looked at the plan.'_ Ruby sounded so small.

 _'_ _It's a bad plan.'_ Blake continued.

 _'_ _No shit! It's the worst idea I've ever heard!'_ Yang shouted loudly enough that Ruby winced.

 _'_ _It isn't… the worst plan.'_ Yang's traitor sister responded.

_'_ _In what possible world could that ever be a good idea?!'_

_'_ _The world where we live, where people were maimed by the Grimm so badly that they can't function and only one of us can heal them.'_ Weiss's tone was just as cold as always.

_'_ _So you let them live, but corrupt them? Steal their souls? How is that better?'_

_'_ _One, there is some amount of compulsion that I can enforce on them due to how the spell func-._ Weiss began.

_'_ _Doesn't help.'_

_'_ _Two, I am certain that either you or Ruby could easily kill any demon that stepped out of line. Even without a magical compulsion, I assume that they have some sense of self-preservation.'_

Yang crossed her arms and glared at Weiss. _'Blake?'_

 _'_ _She's telling the truth, as far as she knows it.'_ Blake tentatively thought. _'I still don't like it and will only consider it if you approve, Yang. This would mean confirming every stereotype about us and Anathema myths.'_

Weiss took a deep breath. _'Blake, I'm not capable of saying this nicely, but the three of you are already doing that. If someone reported that these injuries were your fault, very few would question it and of those who did, they would only question your involvement, not Ruby or Yang's. You three took over a city, rebuilt it in your image, and have everyone left in it worshiping you as gods.'_

The silence was palpable.

 _'_ _Is that why Ren and Nora are mad at me again… more?'_ Ruby asked.

 _'_ _It's primarily the third. The two of them thought you might be better, then they saw all of the cult statues.'_ Weiss held a finger up when Ruby was about to interrupt. _'I know that you don't like it, because you've told me, but someone who looked at how your people are acting wouldn't believe you for a second. The only reason I even remotely expect Atlas will be willing to help is that their upper leadership knows that Salem exists.'_

Ruby dropped her head to the table.

_'_ _If we wind up going with any of these plans, I'm going to ask Ren and Nora, along with Penny and Pytrrha, for approval as well and will try to convince them of Ruby's feelings.'_

_'_ _Why?'_ Yang raised an eyebrow. _'I mean, yeah, they're our friends, but I'm pretty sure they'll take my side on this, so why would you?'_

_'_ _There are numerous issues with us doing everything without consulting others. Optics are obvious, but the least concerning in all honesty. I also promised to bring them in on any major decisions, which all of this counts as.'_

_'_ _I'm actually all for getting their input.'_ Blake thought.

 _'_ _I'm still not okay with any plan that involves summoning demons.'_ Yang grumbled.

 _'_ _Yang?_ Ruby looked at her, eyes glistening slightly. _I think we have to. At least, if we want to save more people… Umm Isn't one of us being able to kill the demons if they do bad things enough? Anyone can call me and I can just sic the Grimm on them.'_

Yang frowned at her.

 _'_ _I mean, I think killing demons is what the Grimm bugs do normally anyway…'_ Ruby lowered her head. _'I also looked into the future a while ago and… I've known that we were going to have to do this, summon demons, at some point. This feels like a time where it can do good.'_

Yang waited for a moment, grinding her teeth. If Ruby really saw that they were going to summon demons… then that was going to happen at some point. And Blake wasn't saying anything about that being a lie. Fuck. According to her memories, Weiss was right about demons being bound to follow specific commands and also being easy to kill. Bringing them into the world was… evil, terrible, exactly what Anathema always did and they were better than that…

Fuck, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 _'_ _How many people?'_ Yang held her eyes shut.

 _'_ _What?'_ Ruby looked up.

_'_ _How many people would doing this save?'_

Weiss moved her scroll to the next column. It was labeled "Do Both". A zero was missing from the end of the death tally. Over ten times as many people would be saved.

 _'_ _I hate this.'_ Yang turned away and opened the door. _'Talk to Ren and Nora. If they -and also both Atlas and Vale!- are fine with it… Then I'll...'_ It felt like she was going to be sick. _'I won't immediately kill whatever you summon.'_

 _You're sure?'_ Blake asked.

 _'_ _If Weiss is right about how many people we'll save… yeah.'_ Yang slammed the door behind her. _'I'm gonna go back out.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **  
> **A/N: This was a tough chapter thanks to everything going on in the world right now. Hoping that the next few will be easier to get out.**  
>  **

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Well, it's thirteen months after I was hoping to be ready. A lot's happened during the past year, most of which can be blamed on the new job. It's the first time my work has seriously mattered in the grand scheme of things and the pressure was real. I think I spent half of the year pulling seventy hour weeks to make sure we released. That pretty much killed any and all energy I had, creative or otherwise, but that's just an excuse. I was still behind before that.
> 
> A big focus of mine for book three is going to be fixing my major writing mistakes from before. This is why I'm not going to force any sort of major schedule, since being unwilling to skip a week unless I absolutely had to was the cause of my worst mistakes.


End file.
